[email protected], "Terry L Parker" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> It's intellectually and spiritually lazy
> to default to a comfortable prejudice
> shared by one's associates!
>
> The term 'personhood' refers to the 'property'
> of being able to have rights & duties (obligations)
> Human Beings are human lifeforms with 'personhood'
> for example.
>
> Historically, we've been too quick to discount
> personhood when doing so was immoral;
> for example, slavery (person discounted to
> another person's property) Determination
> of 'personhood' impacts not only the
> contemporary human abortion issue but also
> the morality of other life form encounters to come.
>
> The intellectual & spiritual 'homework'
> yet to be done by many, is to develop
> a working criteria for who (or what)
> gets to be considered a person AND why.
> If you want that criteria to be
> generally acknowledged it has to be
> as rational and objective as possible.
>
> Here are *my* 'tentative' COMBINED criteria for
> who or what gets to be regarded as a person:
>
> sentience- ability to consider essential
> information about one's environment
> (surroundings, situation and so on)
>
> agency- power to act in that environment
>
> conscious volition- free will to intervene between
> stimulus and response by making meaningful choices;
> without which one can not be 'responsible' for
> one's actions that interface with other persons
>
> Imo, 'personhood' is about individual sovereigns
> (whose 'domains' are their own bodies and
> justly held possessions) being free moral agents;
> which still leaves room for acts of compassion :)
>
> Domains http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian/message/30419
>
> Morals http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian/message/37899
>
>
> There are three essential areas of moral concern about human
abortion:
>
> 1. Personhood- At what point do rights and obligations accrue to the
> developing individual?
>
> The spectrum of opinion is from the moment of conception
> (spiritual, before physical zygote) thru physical gestation to birth
> and a few years beyond (human infanticide is actually NOT regarded
as
> murder in some societies)
>
> 2. Obligation- If the developing individual is deemed a 'person'
> what, if any, duty to that person exists, to provide support?
>
> No person has an 'automatic' claim on the resources of another
> person to provide them with support. But, did voluntary action
> by the 'host' person create an obligation to the 'dependent' person?
>
> 3. Fatal Eviction- If the 'host' person has a right to deny support
> to the 'dependent' person, does the 'host' person's right
to 'evict'
> the 'dependent' person include doing so in such a way that is fatal
> to said dependent?
>
> People of sincere conscience can be found on all sides of these
three
> concerns.
>
>
> 'The unexamined life is not worth living'
> Socrates, in Plato, Dialogues, Apology
> Greek philosopher in Athens (469 BC - 399 BC)
> at http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/24198.html
>
> Please also enter the word consciousness at http://www.Google.com
>
>
> -Terry Liberty Parker
> see: 'Your Freedom and the Rigths of Others'
> at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian/message/22990
>
ForumWebSiteAt http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian
YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
- Visit your group "Libertarian" on the web.
- To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
- Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
