From One Life:
Conclusion 1: There is no death in the DNA replication process. Argument: All of the material in the original strand of DNA becomes a part of the resulting two strands. There is no residue. There is no dead tissue. There was no death.
Conclusion 2: There is no new life created during the replication process. Argument: The information in the coding in each side of the original strand of DNA is identical (although one side is the reciprocal of the other, the information content is identical). One of the sides, containing its complete description of the organism, went into one of the resulting DNA strands, while the other side went into and became a part of the other. There was no new life created. The life in each new strand came directly from the original. The original merely grew into two.
Conclusion 3: All living DNA today has been alive since the first life. Argument: To replicate, the DNA must be alive. When it replicates, it passes its life physically and directly to its offspring. All living things today are alive by virtue of the DNA living in each cell in their bodies.
Conclusion 4: All of the cells in the human body contain the same life. Argument: When a human child is conceived, it consists of a single cell. In that cell are two sets of 23 chromosomes. One set came from the father, one from the mother. The set that came from the mother contains an X chromosome. The set that came from the father may also contain an X chromosome, in which case the new child will be a female. The set from the father may contain a Y chromosome in the place of the X, in which case the new child will be male.
The DNA will immediately start dividing. When the cell contains four sets of chromosomes, instead of its original two, the cell itself will divide. As the DNA grows, so grows the child. The cells multiply in the series 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, etc. until the total cell count approaches 10 billion at maturity. We have seen in conclusion 2 that as the DNA replicates, it carries the actual life forward.
Conclusion 5: There is only one life and it is shared by all living things. Argument: From conclusions 1 and 2, if there is neither death nor creation of life during DNA replication, then the life after the replication must be the same life as that which existed before. From conclusion 3, all life since the first life has been alive since then. All modern life is the same age. Life has been growing since the beginning.
Life, therefore, is collective and it began millions of years ago (the life in our bodies is that old). We are vessels that carry a small portion of that life for a short time. Death for the individual is not an end to life, since life continues to exist in all other forms of life, and will continue to do so as long as there is life.
Conclusion 6: A philosophy that satisfies the needs of the human must also include all other life. Argument: In its strictest sense, a human is alive only by virtue of the DNA in its body. It is the DNA which lives and which gives all of the forms of life their structure. In the structure of life, the human is only one element in a multitude. To determine the goals, aspirations and moral behavior for the human, therefore, the human's inclusion within and its interface with all other life must be considered. (The site no longer exists. Its URL in 2004 was www.onelife.com.)