zygote

The Case against Perfectionに出てきた覚えたい医学用語のもう一つは次ぎの文に出てくる "zygote" です。
In fact, some participants in the stem cell debate have argued that cloned blastocyst are not, strictly speaking, embryos but biologic artifacts ("clonotes" rather than zygotes that lack the moral status of naturally conceived human embryos.
昨日紹介した英絵辞典のページにもこの "zygote" が次ぎの様に使われていました。
Cleavage of zygote: cell resulting from fertilization. In dividing, the egg becomes a new being.
辞書での "zygote" の説明を見てみます。
・Macmillan Dictionary: a fertilized egg that has only just started developing and is not yet an embryo
・Vocabulary.com: A zygote is a fertilized egg.
The sperm cell (spermatozoon) and the egg (ovum) each have only half the genes of the parent cell ? they're haploid cells. When the spermatozoon fertilizes the ovum, the resulting cell has the full complement of genes, so it's a diploid cell. The diploid cell then divides rapidly, becoming first an embryo, then a fetus. The word zygote comes from the Greek word for yoke ? joining two things together, like hitching two oxen together to pull a plow.
英語の本を読む時間は会社の昼休みと通勤のために地下鉄に乗っている片道15分の間だけなので、一冊の本を読むのに通常は最低2週間かかるのですが、今回は腹痛で医者に行った時に1時間半も待たされたのでその間に一気に読むことができ、一週間経たずに読み終えてしまいました。サンデル教授は問題に対する色々な角度からの考察を提示してくれるのでそれは自分で考える点で非常に参考になるのですが、個々の問題に関し、結局サンデル教授はどう思っているのか見失う事があります。　しかし、最後の章にある次の個所は、The Case against Perfectionの全体を通した総括的なサンデル教授の意見である事は間違いありません。
Rather than ban embryonic stem cell research and research cloning, we should allow them to proceed subject to regulations that embody the moral restraint appropriate to the mystery of the first stirrings of human life. Such regulations should include a ban on human reproductive cloning, reasonable limits on the length of time an embryo can be grown in the lab, licensing requirements for fertility clinics, restrictions on the commodification of eggs and sperm, and a stem cell bank to prevent proprietry interests from monopolozing access to stem cell line.