I Am Not the Zygote I Came from because a Different Singleton Could Have Come from It
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10693489 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Chunghyoung Lee (0000-0002-7320-4325, Pohang University of Science and Technology, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 131 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 295-325 |
| Publication date | 2022-07-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Philosophical Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0031-8108 • E-ISSN: 1558-1470 |
| Publisher | Duke University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1215/00318108-9743822 |
| OpenAlex | W4312324713 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 27 |
Many people believe that human beings begin to exist with the emergence of the 1-cell zygote at fertilization. I present a novel argument against this belief, one based on recently discovered facts about human embryo development. I first argue that a human zygote is developmentally plastic: A zygote that naturally develops into a singleton (i.e., develops into exactly one infant/adult without twinning) might have naturally developed into a numerically different singleton. From this, I derive the conclusion that a human infant or adult is numerically distinct from the zygote she came from and so did not begin to exist at fertilization. This implies that a zygote does not have a “future like ours” and strongly suggests that it is not a human being
Argument (complex analysis) · Biology · Embryo · Embryogenesis · Human fertilization · Pregnancy · Singleton · Zygote · Cell Biology · Genetics · Neuroethics, Human Enhancement, Biomedical Innovations · Pluripotent Stem Cells Research · Reproductive Biology and Fertility
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |