Sporophyte and Gametophyte - When is a human a human?

Alternation of Generation - I remember reading about this in 9th grade and not paying much attention to it. But it is very interesting. In simple terms, there are two phases, the haploid when the cells of the plant have one set of chromosomes and then the diploid phase where the cells have two sets of chromosome. The former is also called gametophyte and the latter sporophyte. The diploid form is produced by fusion of two haploid and the haploid form by meiosis of the diploid form. In most higher forms of plants (the word higher is not used in a pejorative sense) the dominant phase is mostly diploid and the haploid form is restricted typically to flowers. But in Bryophytes such as moss the dominant phase is the haploid phase.

Well humans and also most animals are diploid, that is, the majority of the tissue contains two sets of chromosomes. The haploid phase is restricted to the gametes, namely the sperm and the ovum.

What does this all mean?

Think of it this way - the broyophyte is either made of all sperm like tissue or ovum like tissue. I do not mean in physical appearance.

Why is it all important to us?

It is a question of when a human being is a human being. Is there some humanity in the sperm? How about the Ova? People use the 24th week of pregnancy as a magic mark, as the line that differentiates a human from what is euphemistically called a fetus. We use that word fetus so we can be objective when decisions involving termination of pregnancy is being made. But is that obvious? Not to me. In certain creatures the entire life is made up of sperm and ova like entities and the diploid form shows up for only a few days during spore formation!! As I see it, the sperm, the egg, and the fetus have as much humanity as does the individual that reads this post. There can be no individual without the sperm, the egg, or the fetus.

Despite all this I still am Pro-Choice. Why?

I am opposed to the Church, which means Men, controlling the womb.

But I also hope we could have an educated conversation on this topic. Abortion after all should be a means of last resort and not a form of birth control!!