The beginning of human life and embryos: a philosophical and theological perspective

Abstract

Life is a process that has a beginning and an end. Every health care professional, especially the one who works more at these edges, should have a very clear position on when a human life begins and ends. This is very important, since the moral acceptability of some medical applications depends on the definition of these times. There are different views from the scholars in different academic fields on the time of the beginning of human life. Although there is not much debate on the ‘humanity’ of a newborn, except some marginal philosophers, the moral status of the embryos and fetuses are still debated. Since determining the beginning and the end of life is a matter of moral decisions, the concept of human life shall be defined from a social sciences perspective, so the time of its beginning can be explored. The paper refers some bioethical concepts, like ‘human being’, ‘human person’ and ‘moral being’. By examining the issue from philosophical and different religious perspectives, it is argued that human life begins, therefore morally matters, in the womb at the beginning of the eighth week after conception.