BEING [ADDENDUM]

In a previous discussion of BEING, I left some things unclear.  I seemed to equate all of being which was not my intent nor is it true.  Some beings, such as the example of the tree, have multiple and random potential being.  As long as they are able to progress into other states of being, their potential is fulfilled.

In the example of the human sperm and ovum, their combined potential is singular and specific.

In the case of the tree, almost anything you might do to it would result in the continuation of being, but in the case of the aborted embryo, the realized potential of combining sperm and ovum, a specific, not random, potential being, a human, has been destroyed.  If the embryo could have had the potential of becoming a tree or any other being, its destruction would be meaningless to us.  The fact that it was capable only of becoming a human, means that a human had been destroyed.

The original discussion refrained from religious considerations intentionally.  We know that human potential being inccludes a spiritual potntial as well.  Even if the earthly potential of that being is obliterated, we know the spiritual being of those innocents is preserved.