ChatGPT on when life begins

Sam: When does an individual human organism begin?

ChatGPT: The question of when an individual human organism begins is a complex and controversial one, and different people may have different opinions based on their religious, philosophical, or scientific beliefs. In biology, the beginning of an individual human organism is typically considered to be the moment of fertilization, when a sperm fertilizes an egg to form a zygote. This zygote contains all the genetic information needed to develop into a fetus, and eventually a baby.

In the field of medicine, the moment of fertilization is considered the beginning of the pregnancy, and the fertilized egg is considered an organism with the potential of developing into a human being.

In legal and ethical terms, different societies and cultures have different laws and regulations regarding when an individual human organism begins. In some places, human life is considered to begin at conception, while in others, it is considered to begin at birth.

In summary, the question of when an individual human organism begins is a complex and controversial one, and different people may have different opinions based on their religious, philosophical, or scientific beliefs. In biology, the beginning of an individual human organism is typically considered to be the moment of fertilization, when a sperm fertilizes an egg to form a zygote, and in legal and ethical terms, different societies and cultures have different laws and regulations regarding when an individual human organism begins.

My commentary: I find it interesting that ChatGPT would say the biological/medical answer to the question is fertilization, but in legal and ethical terms, different societies and cultures have different answers to the question. To me it's a straight forward objectively knowable answer. There's nothing subjective about it. Fertalization is the very beginning of the existence of a new human organism. The fact that people disagree with this isn't because they're ignorant of how the science works or what's really going on. It's because they don't like the moral implications of it. It's an inconvenient conclusion. And it's easy for some people to live with this conclusion because the unborn can't speak for themselves, nobody can hear them, and abortion happens in the dark. It is easy for some people to turn a blind eye to what is really going on, and they have a motive to do so.