I want to know, where is the line drawn in the creation of life, where my consciousness is chosen over other possible "consciousnesses"? is it the specific sperm and egg combination? or specific two parents? or what?
During what step in the creation of life is my consciousness chosen over the possible countless other "people to be born"?
That question has always plagued me.
So I guess post questions that you NEED to learn the answer to, but probably never will.
The line is drawn at viability; the third trimester
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/Prenatal_development_table.svg
Before that, the fetus has minimal-to-no chance of surviving outside of the womb if it were to be born(this is including ICU for premies and shit).
Consciousness begins at birth, or shortly before it. For most, if not all, of the pregnancy the fetus is not aware of its existence nor of any stimuli. Its state of consciousness is, for all intents and purposes, that of a person's consciousness after death(though I guess in terms of a religious person, this doesn't make sense since most believe in an afterlife).
I don't really think that consciousness is real. Obviously thoughts happen, but I don't really think that people actually are anything... I'm being inarticulate, sorry.
What I mean is that I think that every thought/decision/action ever is an inevitable reaction to the environment, be it chemical, physical, or something humanity doesn't understand. Basically that everything that has happened or will happen was always going to happen.
But then again, I also think that everything humanity thinks it understands about physics and reality is all going to be proven wrong eventually. Also, utter nothingness is a grim and difficult concept to grasp, at least for me.
Srsly.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/the-end-of-knowing/?hp