Discuss(ting)

[cormacbooth]

Is sperm a lifeform?

[map08]

I would say no. Although it is a cell, it cannot reproduce - by this I mean it cannot replicate another sperm cell, and not in the way that it may have sounded! Although saying that, if the foetus that it produces goes on to become male, then it would be reproducing more sperm cells so...maybe.

[WaldoMcFroog]

Nor does it excrete, take norishment, respire, grow etc. Actually, it's been too long to remember all 7 of the characteristics of life, but it certainly doesn't meet them.

[christian]

Although my recall of school biology is very rusty, I think that the sperm cell is a gamete. Like the egg, it has half of the chromosomes necessary to create the zygote (the egg having the other half). The zygote is a lifeform, and given the right conditions will grow into a foetus.