Is a fetus alive? If it is or isn't, please explain.?

Question

Please state sources if possible.

Answer 1

This comes to the heart of the definition of life and there is no universally acceptable answer. Although the fetus consists of cells, growths, consumes energy and releases waste, so does your hand or your lung. If you believe that a part of a living thing is also living, than the answer is unambiguous “Yes”.
If you believe that “living” means a separate “organism”, then fetus is one of the borderline cases, where the definition of “organism” or “individual” is not universally accepted.
Some may give fetus a status of an “organism” by equating fetus to a parasite, which we perceive as a clearly separate organism from a host. On the other hand, fetus could be viewed as a part of the mother organism, because it shares homeostatic controls with it and normally could function only as a part of it. There are many other examples when part of what is perceived to be a single organism differs genetically from the rest of it (e.g. virally infected parts; rudimentary males completely fused to females in some fishes; gametes and their precursors that have a different set and structure of chromosomes after meiosis; parts of the body which carry a distinct set of chromosomes after a mutation at an early stage of development; etc.). Finally, some parasites and, especially, symbionts may have their own genes, but are commonly classified as parts of the same organism with the host (e.g. mitochondria and chloroplasts; integrated viruses in host DNA; fungi and algae in a lichen). I wouldn’t even try to classify Siamese twins…
The mechanisms of embryonic development are totally oblivious to our struggles to classify them. The latter is done solely for the purpose of convenience, be it in our speech, legal system, politics or religion.

Answer 2

A fetus in the womb is 'alive,' in the sense that it is made up of living cells. However, it generally cannot live outside of its mother (sometimes it can but only if it is very late in the pregnancy) so it is not quite an independent organism.

Answer 3

It is alive because it has the characteristics of a living thing which are the following:
1. composed of cells which have the ability to undergo mitosis and form tissues.
2. the fetus has inherited traits from both parents
3. responds to simuli - it quivers
4. there is intussusception - growth from within
5. it is capable of homeostasis - internal balance
These are some characteristics

General Zoology By Ayuyao et al

Answer 4

yes the fetus is alive as it grows to become a new born. It just don't come to life right after it's born

Answer 5

a fetus is alive.it takes in air from its mother, it's takes in food from the placenta to grow and of course, if it does all the functions it is alive

Answer 6

It's made of living cells...it's not self-aware. It's basically a same-species form of parasite, which is a living creature, but "an organism that lives on or in an organism known as the host, from the body of which it obtains nutriment" because it cannot live outside its host.

Answer 7

yes a foetus is alive. it is just in the dormant and growing stage but internally it has rapid cell divisions going on within it . also i would like to make it clear to u buddy that a foetus respires, attains its food from its mother and when fully grows up comes to the world as a new born baby.

Answer 8

yes every one start off dead....i believe the question "at what point dose the become fetus sentient" is what your after.