Are Sperms Alive?

[Sean Mahoney]

sung at UTMDACC.MDA.UTH.TMC.EDU (GongQin Sun) wrote:

>1) I agree with the five characteristics, but think a sperm meets number 4
>(self propagation) only partially at best.  Sperms can not reproduce
>themselves first of all.  With the help of an egg, only half of the sperm
>population (those carrying the Y chromosome) can eventually "reproduce"
>themselves.  Am I missing something here?

Unless I am mistaken in what you are saying, in your opinion sexual
creatures are not alive since they cannot independantly reproduce.
Because a sexual creature has to have input from a similar creature of
the opposite sex it can not reproduce by itself and is therfor not
alive.  I would have to say the the sperm and egg are alive but are
part of their "parents" body.  So when a woman ovulates she has an egg
that is alive just like she has epithilial cells that are alive.

Sean Mahoney