"It may help to keep in mind that the products of gametogenesis and fertilization are very different. The products of gametogenesis are mature sex gametes with only 23 instead of 46 chromosomes. The product of fertilization is a living human being with 46 chromosomes. Gametogenesis refers to the maturation of germ cells resulting in gametes. Fertilization refers to the initiation of a new human being."
[When Do Human Beings Begin? By Dianne M. Irving, MA., Ph.D; copyright 1999 http://www.l4l.org/library/mythfact.html ... L4L is Libertarians For Life]
I don't think that is in dispute. Why is that fact relevent to my point?
What is your interest in pinning down the exact moment of the beginning of an individual's life?
I'm a bit saddened since I've already explained it to you at length in prior posts. Maybe I just wasn't clear. The point is simple. The physical world works along a time continuum. Quantum mechanics may give exceptions, but those are well below the molecular scales we are discussing. So then you come along, and I learn that the universe moves along smooth continua, except for during one stage in the process of sexual reproduction. If this exception is true, then it is an earth-shattering revelation to our knowledge of physics. As such, it ought to be substantiated. There must be some nonarbitrary dividing point where 10^-30 seconds afterwards we obviously have a human being, and 10^-30 seconds before we obviously don't--some skip in the normal continuous flow of time.