Abstract
When does life begin? Or, let us start with a prior question: When has life begun? According to evolutionists, life on planet Earth originated 3.5-4 billion years ago with the appearance of the first prehistoric prokaryotic single-cell life form. During the vast period of time that has since passed, numerous species have formed. Each species and each species’ member has been inheriting and carrying, like a baton in a never-ending relay race, an increasingly smaller and smaller part of the original DNA created within the very first single-cell form that started it all as our earliest common ancestor. Life is, therefore, a continuum that began in the warm preocean soup and still exists or “lives” within the cells of each animal or plant organism on the planet. This includes us humans, of course. A very minuteportion of the genetic message of the first organism is within each of us. It is there to stay and will be passed on to the next generations for as long as life exists. And, inevitably, it will continue “living,” cleaving, and replicating in the cells of all past and present living beings on earth as an indication that information (genetic, in this case), along with matter and energy, is one of the three basic ingredients of the universe.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1991 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Naumov, I.M., Wilberger, J.E., Keyes, C.D. (1991). Beginning and End of Biological Life. In: Keyes, C.D. (eds) New Harvest. Contemporary Issues in Biomedicine, Ethics, and Society. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-0489-3_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-0489-3_3
Publisher Name: Humana Press, Totowa, NJ
Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-6785-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-0489-3
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive