Miracle of Life - Reaction Paper

REACTION PAPER

“MIRACLE OF LIFE”

People do all sorts of things to get attention. Why? It may be the last thing on his mind, but this man's body is working toward this. Whether we're thinking about it or not, our bodies want to make babies. And our bodies are very good at it. Around the world about 365,000 new babies get made every day.

But as ordinary as it seems, creating a new human being is no simple feat. Just think of it. No matter who you are, once upon a time you looked like this. From a single cell you built a body that has one hundred trillion cells. You made hundreds of different kinds of tissues and dozens of organs, including a brain that allows you to do remarkable things. How did you do it?

How life arose is a question that is fundamental to both philosophy and science. Responses to it enable one, in turn, to answer such questions as, “Who am I?”, “Why am I here?”, “How am I created?” and “How do I make sense of this world?” This secondary set of questions can be answered in a myriad of ways for a variety of reasons, but the answer to the first question has only two responses. As Douglas Futuyuma says, “Creation and evolution, between them, exhaust the possible explanations for the origin of living things”. The possibility that perhaps the origin of life cannot be explained by a natural mechanism is ignored, and this is disturbing. For if we limit what explanations we are willing to accept for the origin of life, we could be closing our eyes to reality.

The video, “Miracles of Life”, explains in detail how a human is born from the start. All organisms contain genes, DNA, and cells and are able to reproduce. In order for a baby to be born, a male gamete meets with the female gamete and this is called fertilization. This is the first step leading to the birth of a baby.

The video is prepared not only to show the wonders of prenatal development but also to prove the marvels of life itself.          Remarkably beautiful, the “Miracles of Life” records human conception and much more. Living and functioning reproductive systems are shown in the video, and there is so much to explore and absorb. I followed the short journey of millions of sperm as they develop and strive mightily to reach the egg. And I noticed that there isn't a guy in the room who can watch footage without squirming! Likewise, magnification of up to half a million times the actual size allowed me to see the egg from its development in an ovary, through the delicate fallopian tube for fertilization, and on to the uterus for growth and eventual birth.

Your Precious Baby's Life Began At The Moment of Conception! Conception is the moment at which the sperm penetrates the ovum. Once fertilized, he or she is called a zygote at this stage, until reaching the uterus 3-4 days later. Fertilization: The sperm and egg join in the fallopian tube to form a unique human being. Forty-six chromosomes combine, which predetermine all of a person's physical characteristics.

Conception, the beginning of life, takes place when one sperm cell from the male partner fertilizes one ovum (egg) from the female partner and becomes an embryo. This occurs in one of the woman's Fallopian tubes and provided the embryo is then transported to the uterus for implantation, pregnancy begins. It may sound simple and straightforward but the process demands fine and delicate biological tuning.

An ovum needs to be regularly released each month from the ovary, a process that can only proceed if a complicated cascade of hormonal events takes place without interference. This egg then needs to be able to move freely along an unblocked Fallopian tube where it can be fertilized by a sperm and then reach the womb.

The sperm have to be healthy, motile and numerous, although only one will ultimately penetrate the egg and form an embryo with it. Then the lining of the womb must also be receptive to this embryo so that it can embed itself within it and begin to produce the hormones necessary to maintain the pregnancy thereafter. Any one of these sensitive but essential components of fertility can easily be upset by a number of unfavourable factors. Many, however, are within your control.

I have never thought about what an absolute miracle my life is. I can’t imagine how I came to be. Out of thousands of eggs and millions of sperm, one egg and one sperm united to produce me. Had the union of sperm and egg come a day or even a month earlier or later, I might have been very different, maybe the opposite sex or with curly hair or longer legs. The exact person that I am, born to my parents, on the date and time I was born, with the DNA structure I have has about a 1:400,000,000,000 (one in 400 billion) chance of existing. If I don’t call that miraculous, then I don’t know what that is!

The film has shown me something profoundly beautiful and yet has left its fundamental mystery intact. The “Miracles of Life” is exceptional and it is a documentary that can also be considered as art. Watching the video is like having a journey as I witnessed the complex, mysterious way of life.