what is the difference between a zygote and the cells that make up the body, such as blood cells, skin cells..

Question

how is a human zygote more precious than a skin cell, blood cell, bone cell, etc.?

put more simply, what is the difference between *a* human life, and living human parts?

Answer 1

a human zygote is more precious because it takes longer to make. it takes 8 steps for it to be made and a body cell takes 4 steps to be made

Answer 2

A zygote is the cell produced by the union of two gametes, before it undergoes cleavage (the total or partial division of the egg into smaller cells or blastomeres). In other words it is a fertilized egg. If it is viable and the body in which it exists is capable of supporting it, it will develop into an organism. As the cells are dividing and growing they begin to specialize. Every cell has the DNA instructiions for building an entire body but somehow each cell is "told" what kind of cell to become (a muscle cell, a nerve cell, a skin cell, etc.).

Those cells are organized into tissues, which may be oranized into organs, which may be organized into systems (e.g. digestive system, nervous system).

What the debate is about is when does that fertilized egg become a human being. The scientific argument would be something along the lines of our human-ness comes from our brains and nervous system, that the developing organism at some point develops a brain and nervous system that enables it to feel. The (extreme) religious argument is that at the moment of conception a "soul" enters the cell.

The debate plays out when abortion is discussed. The scientific argument is that aborting a 1-hour-old (microscopic) zygote is a decision that involves only one human being, the (potential) mother. The religious argument is that the same action is murder.

Personally I do not believe in a soul. I do believe that the existence of a human being depends on having a properly functioning brain. I do not know at what moment between conception and a full-term birth the nervous system has developed sufficiently to allow the organism to feel, but I know it's not while the organism is still a single cell.

Answer 3

The zygote is capable of giving rise to all the cell types of the body.

You can lose hundreds of your skin cells every day and never notice. You lose your zygote (the one that grew into you) and you also won't notice, but that will be because you won't be there.

Answer 4

zygote cells are all undifferentiated (called stem cells), whereas human cells are differentiated into organs and tissues.