text: does life begin at conception?   no it doesn't.  life began many million years ago when chemical processes happened to create dna and the first rudimentary organisms. life hasn't stopped since then. conception is just a process of continuation. the individual cells that participate in conception are alive as well. the sperm is alive, as is the ovum.  life is not an isolated event like many people think it is. life is a phenomenon that doesn't care whether we put arbitrary stop signs and say here is where it begins.  a correct question to ask would be "is the fertilized egg a complete person?" and the answer to that is also no. a fertilized egg is a zygote. it is not even an embryo. after the zygote has divided into more than one cell and it has attached to the female's uterus, it becomes an embryo. in case of humans, only after about 8 weeks when all major organs have developed, does the embryo attain the status of a fetus. at that point, you could say, yes it is a baby.