With great respect to the Talmud, we can't know exactly when life begins. If we believe in God and the existence of an immortal soul within us, we must err on the side of caution. From the point of view of the human intellect, the most obvious time for God to impart a soul is at the moment of conception. That is when the most profound physiologic changes occur. That is when an incomplete genetic package becomes complete with all the code of a complete human being.
What should be the price/condemnation for killing a human physical body?..
even at the age of 1 month?..
Well, scientifically, we know when the life of an individual human being begins. It begins at conception. You can only get life from life, Frankenstein to the contrary. A live child is conceived by living parents, and we say that its life "begins" because it is genetically a separate person from either of its parents.
The Talmud is presumably based on biblical descriptions such as the one in the Book of Job. But the Bible is not attempting to be scientifically precise at all points. The Bible says that the sun "rises" and "sets," but we know it doesn't actually do that--rather, the earth turns and it only seems to rise and set. But it's so convenient to say so that we still say that the sun rises and sets, which certainly is not a false statement. It merely has to be properly understood.
Similarly, St. Thomas and other theologians spoke about life beginning at the moment of quickening or ensoulment, taken to be when the baby is first felt to move in the womb. But we now know that life begins earlier, at the beginning, and that therefore ensoulment must also be earlier.
I must say, these days whenever I see the word "ethicist," I reach for my pistol (metaphorically). An ethicist is, more often than not, a highly trained professional who is almost completely ignorant of real morality. His function is to tell hospitals and other institutions who pay him what they want to hear.
the dog dies, the kids leave home...THAT's when life begins.
Is this true?
What do they mean "when does life begin"? Life is present before and after conception. After conception it is a different life, a new individual.
At this point the lefties say "well it's not human!"
Well then, what is it? A dog? an ape? an amoeba? a paramecium? a virus?
If it's not human, at what point does it become human? And what is it that causes it to change from whatever to human? How does a formless mass of protoplasm (what they call it) become human? Either there is something inside it that makes it become human or something outside it that makes it become human.
At this point I've lost all the leftists, since their minds don't function like those of normal people.
And that's why I say "Leftism is Mentally Deranged"