[hocndoc]

"It's actually not that bad a place to draw a line. Without implantation the blastocyst will not continue development into a fetus."



Humans can be killed or die naturally at anytime after fertilization or the quickening of a clone (however or if that's ever possible). But, that doesn't change that the beginning is before implantation. A somatic cell or gamete can't become a blastocyst - aren't actual developing and differentiating beings.

[realpatriot71]

Humans can be killed or die naturally at anytime after fertilization or the quickening of a clone (however or if that's ever possible). But, that doesn't change that the beginning is before implantation. A somatic cell or gamete can't become a blastocyst - aren't actual developing and differentiating being

Your are correct, but w/o implanation it doesn't matter what started, when it started, or how it started, our happy little developing blastocyst will not live, period. For all intents and purposes, there is no life without implantation, because implantation is a necessary condition for continued development. And I know, I know, "It's a continuum" - however this particular stage of "the continuum" has nothing recognizable as human except for it's DNA, and even DNA outside of this context is just one large biomolecule. "Humaness" for all practical purposes is not our DNA, or our organelles, or our cells, it is the fact that we are able to know, acknowledge, and fear a creator. A conceptus obviously needs a certain amount of development for this to happen (at least a brain). A blastocyst has no brain nor any other organization that can be recognized at distinctinly "human". My point being that if one is going to draw a line, "before implanation" is not that illogical a line to draw