something being "alive" does not make it important for any kind of ethical discussion.
it comes down to where you draw the line at a certain level of cognition. a newborn baby can commonly have observed sentience. so there is a point before where it moves from high functioning cognition to sentience we have to decide on. even certain animals come dangerously close to high functioning cognition.
but a human in the womb can have it. anything before that point is ok to kill, like getting a haircut. anything after is sick murder.