At what point does a human being become a human being?
I don’t want to get into religion, politics, or legality. My question is more basic.
After fertilization, the development of a new organism begins. Throughout the process, we give it different names: zygote, embryo, fetus, baby, child, adult.
But at what exact moment does it stop being something that “is not yet a human being” and become a human being?
At fertilization?
At implantation?
At 6, 12, or 20 weeks?
When brain activity appears?
When it can feel pain?
When it can survive outside the womb?
Or only at birth?
How many seconds before or after what exact point does it acquire the label of “human being”?
And, above all:
What exactly happens at that moment that justifies establishing that boundary?
Let’s think about a dog. Before it is born, we can call it a “fetus,” but nobody would say that it is a different species from a dog. It is a dog at a particular stage of its development.
The same with a tree: it does not appear as an adult tree. There is a continuous process from the seed to the tree.
So my question is:
If the development of a human being is continuous, at what exact point does it stop being “non-human” and begin to be human? And who establishes that criterion?
I am not asking who legally has the power to decide it. I am asking what the biological or philosophical basis is for establishing that limit.
I am especially interested in hearing the answer from pro-choice people, because I want to understand how they justify that boundary.
What is that which exists before the limit, and what exactly changes so that after the limit we can call it a human being?
The definition of extermination is the definition that comes closest to systematically ending the lives of a large number of human beings.
But isn’t abortion this because they are not human beings, or are they? Maybe it is just a play on words.