G'morning Greg, 

 GP> I'd like to get opinions and thoughts on the question of "when
 GP> does an individuals life begin"?

Err ... "individual" is fine, but what do you mean by "life" ?

 GP> As far as what I know of science, it would have to be the instance
 GP> the two sets (male and female) of chromosomes join together.

That certainly is the essential moment that kicks off the start of 
a new human,  with a random selection of parental chromosomes.

 GP> But I know not enough information to make such a important
 GP> decision.  Any thoughts are appreciated.  Thanks.

But.... many jorneys lie ahead before one has a functioning 
individual human - one or two in which it is possible to take a 
wrong turn and fail to reach the usual outcome.

Given that the fertilised cell manages to lodge in the womb and 
develop happily into a full-term fetus,  there are the traumas of 
birth to survive - but with more learnings than is commonly 
believed.

However, what is born is the world's most efficient learning 
machine - and it can now learn to be non-human,  depending on the 
environment it lands in.   Should it then be raised by some other 
species, for example, it will efficiently learn to be one.  The 
usual examples are raised by wolves or monkeys,  and the result in 
a behavioural wolf or monkey - irreversibly non-human, missing 
vital brain-changes and perceptual constancies inimical to humans.

Thus it is that the newly-born has now to learn to be a human ... 
a process that is 90% complete by age 3 or so.   Spend a moment 
trying to recall your earliest memories - that's about when you 
became an acceptable human in adult eyes.

So your definition of "life" decides whether you seek the physical 
start of an individual,  or the meaningful emergence of a social 
human being ...

Which might not help you that much...

:-)
 
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