The state of young women
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Bacteria is plural. Bacterium is singular. A woman begetting even a single bacterium is still impossible.
If you can't distinguish a bacteria from a zygote you've got a really shitty microscope or you're blind. They are exceedingly different, and trivially distinguishable. I once worked in a micro lab, high school students can tell a eukaryotic cell from a prokaryotic. Easy peasy.
The more important thing to note is that a bacterium remains such. A human zygote unless killed will develop into a human embryo, than fetus, then infant, child, adult, and senescence and die unless it is killed prematurely.
How is drawing the line at first trimester, or 12/13 weeks not entirely arbitrary? Something physical/biological you want to tie it to? Because people will just say whatever age you draw the line to get what they want.
Your arbitrary pregnancy week line makes no logical sense to me, is not based in any biological or moral distinction of significance.
Yes, and then you would precede the word with an article.
Why would the human zygote be entitled to more protection based on potential?
You may as well ask at what point a single grain of wheat becomes a heap. Just like the age for driving, there has to be some cut-off point that is reasonable, and that may be considered arbitrary by some, but not unreasonable.
Potential really has little to do with it, and did I say that it was entitled to "more" protection?
A sperm and egg have potential....to become a human zygote...our first stage of development.
A zygote has realized its potential to become human. It will only continue to develop more completely over time.
I think a reasonable cut off point is conception...it's biologically distinct and knowable. It's stringent and so will prevent the problem with time based cutoffs (which are determined by last menstrual period, which isn't verifiable) being at best approximate. At least driving age is based on your birthdate, trivially verifiable.