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Re:What I learned trying to classify abortion access across ... by anon291 on Tuesday July 19, 2022 @11:39AM (#32153135)
You're going way off topic. You asked why sperm and eggs are not living, but a diploid fertilized egg would be considered an individual human. I provided an answer (sperm and eggs lack a fundamental qualification to being human -- having a diploid set of chromosomes). Unless you can provide evidence of a human being with a haploid set of chromosomes (23 or less), my point still stands. Greek, Christian, or whatever mythology doesn't matter.
Re:What I learned trying to classify abortion access across ... by tomrod on Tuesday July 19, 2022 @07:11PM (#32159180)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenogenesis

> Parthenogenesis occurs naturally in some plants, some invertebrate animal species (including nematodes, some tardigrades, water fleas, some scorpions, aphids, some mites, some bees, some Phasmatodea and parasitic wasps) and a few vertebrates (such as some fish, amphibians, reptiles and very rarely birds). This type of reproduction has been induced artificially in a few species including fish, amphibians, and mice.

Happens in vertebrates. Hasn't been observed among primates quite yet, but give it time and proper data capture. Thus why mythology (oral embedding of odd events preserved by religious contexts) could provide a single meta-observation in the stories of virgins giving birth.

You then asked for a historical Athena -- not sure why you wanted to go that direction but guessed you wanted to go off topic -- so I went with it.

You're trying to make the point of "can't happen" that eggs self-fertilize. We know they do, though, among vertabrates. That we haven't observed it in humans means one of three hypotheses: (1) it is impossible, (2) it is rare, (3) we don't capture the observation (perhaps the fetuses all miscarry, thus requiring abortion as a medical procedure).