[beavus]

Eggs and sperm are cells. When they combine, however, they form a human being that, over time, develops from one cell into abortion activists.

Cute, but my quandary isn't solved. I'm told by biologists that sperm are alive. Human sperm, being from a human, is human. Therefore, a sperm is a human life. And yet, I'm told by primates that a sperm is not a human life. Who is right?

[MontanaBeth]

The female ovum is also alive, but it doesn't become life until fertilized.

[Held_to_Ransom]

Sperms better not be life or all males are either cannibals or mass murderers. Same for eggs. The magic happens when they meet. There are living, but neither by itself will ever amount to a human being.

[Held_to_Ransom]

Sperms better not be life or all males are either cannibals or mass murderers. Same for eggs. The magic happens when they meet. There are living, but neither by itself will ever amount to a human being.

[hocndoc]

The sperm cell is at the end of differentiation, a highly specialized cell which only contains the genetic material of the male who generates it. It is a motile cell which can be removed from the originating body without the death of the male. The sperm cell will not differentiate further and will not live more than a couple of days, even in the most perfect environment.

When the sperm nucleus fuses with the oocyte nucleus, the sperm ceases to exist. The nuclear and cytoplasmic material of the sperm is now mingled with the oocyte nucleus and cytoplasm in such a way that the two can't be separated without causing the death of the new entity. That new entity is a zygote, which, in the proper environment, will divide, differentiate, grow and develop.