---------- From: Ronn!Blankenship <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> At 04:40 PM 5/24/04, Dave Land wrote: >Richard Baker wrote: > >>>A cell is not a person. A cell has no rights. A cell does not and >>>should not have rights. >>So if I were to destroy exactly one cell in your body at a time until >>none were left then that would be okay? If not, at what stage would it >>become other than okay? > >Rich must understand The Fool's post very differently than I do... > >The phrase "... one cell in your body ..." presupposes a (reasonably) >complete body. The question "... [would] that ... be okay?" presupposes >sentience, the ability to care one way or another. > >I think that The Fool was making the point that a fertilized egg is not >yet a body, not yet a person, and therefore not entitled (yet) to the >rights of a person.
OTOH, by the time it is possible to know that an egg has been fertilized and implanted (and thus an abortion is needed in order to insure that it does not develop further) it is no longer just a single cell . . . --- 1/3 of all pregnancies self terminate in natural abortion or stillbirth (of course a stillbirth is now murder in some states...). It's still not a person. And neither is cancer, even though they both meet JDG's criteria of having unique DNA. Most Sperm and Eggs would also meet JDG's criteria, having mutated on average in 64 different places. Perhaps Jacking Off and menstruating should be a crime too (murder of millions of unique DNA strands).
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