A gamete is a haploid reproductive cell that fuses at fertilization with a gamete of the opposite sex to form the diploid zygote. In humans it carries 23 chromosomes.
Ontological classification
- is subclass of: germline cell, hence part of the germline
- is haploid
- has subclass: oocyte and spermatozoon
- is not a human person — and this statement is here correct and intended
Why “not a person” holds here
Personhood begins with fertilization. A germ cell is a part of an organism, not an organism; it has no developmental direction of its own toward an individual but is exhausted in fusing with another. From the active potency of an embryo personhood follows; from a gamete’s readiness to fuse it does not.
This demarcation is sharp and uncontested. Precisely for that reason it also has consequences when extended without care.
The limit of the demarcation
Newer procedures produce intermediate states that have neither arisen through fertilization nor emerged from the germline. For the cell existing in mitomeiosis between nuclear transfer and fertilization, neither of the two customary criteria applies.
Simply classifying it as a gamete would be convenient — and would be not a finding but a decision: it would tacitly deny the question of personal status without that denial being stated anywhere. The methodologically sound course in personal ontology is therefore to keep the status of such intermediate states open and to proceed on the principle in dubio pro persona — just as is done with the synthetic embryo model.
See also
- Oocyte, Germline
- Meiosis, Genomic Imprinting
- Fertilization
- Gamete Donation
- In Vitro Gametogenesis, Mitomeiosis
- Synthetic Embryo Model
Sources: Generated by querying the Personhood ontology. Research as of 27 July 2026.