WD, if a human baby is born without a brain (tragic but happens) do
you assert that it's still possesses 'personhood' and if so, why? 

-Terry Liberty Parker
PERSONHOOD: Abortion & beyond
at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian/message/48351



--- In [email protected], "W. D." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> At 18:23 5/18/2006, Terry L Parker wrote:
> >I think that the 'birth' as criteria for
Constitutional 'personhood'
> >was adopted as a matter of convenience; a clear delineation
> >commensurate with that time's technology. 
> >
> >These days, human babies can be prematurely born by months.  And
some
> >are naturally born 'brainless' (sans brain).  Upon birth a human
is
> >still VERY dependent on others for basic life support.  What
effect
> >might this lack of material 'agency' have on transendendly
> >moral 'personhood' (not just what is legal now)
> >
> >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 one's 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
> >
> >
> >-Terry Liberty Parker
> >PERSONHOOD: Abortion & beyond
> >at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian/message/48351
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >--- In [email protected], "Thomas L. Knapp"
> ><thomaslknapp@> wrote:
> >>
> >> Quoth Terry:
> >>
> >> > In some societies infanticide is NOT considered to be murder.
> >>
> >> That's precisely what I was referring to in another post (since
you
> >> posted this one) with respect to the "fetus fairy" argument.
> >>
> >> In the absence of an explanation as to how and why a "person"
> >> is/becomes a "person," there's no particular reason to believe
that
> >> that happens at the moment the doctor yanks the youngsun out and
> >> announces the birth. It could happen earlier. It could happen
later.
> >>
> >> L. Neil Smith has argued -- I'm not sure how serious versus
> >> hypothetical he intended it, but the argument was not
unreasonable -
> >-
> >> that children are just property, albeit very _valued_ property to
> >> which we have an instinctive biological attachment, until they
say
> >> "see ya, ma, see ya, pa" and walk off over the horizon in charge
of
> >> their own lives.
> >>
> >> When I characterize that argument as "not unreasonable," I mean
> >that I
> >> find it more reasonable than the position that a fetus passing
the
> >> cervix on the way out is not a "person," but that it magically
> >somehow
> >> is a "person" once the feet clear the labia.
> >>
> >> Tom Knapp
>
> A human being has a soul.  "Quickening", when the soul enters
> the body, happens at about 3 months after conception.  As I
> recall, this was considered within Roe v. Wade.
>
> When someone dies, the soul leaves the body.  What remains
> is a body, not a living, human being.
>
> Mr. Parker's previously criteria are good gauges of whether
> the soul resides within the body.  However, Terry Schiavo
> could be an exception to these guidelines.  Most of her
> brain was gone, unable to do much at all, but was still
> alive until they pulled the plug.
>
> Considering a person "property" whether a child or a slave,
> is merely a label.  How you treat that person under your
> care is the crucial matter.  However, restricting someone's
> liberty, who is fully able to govern themselves and take
> responsibility for their own actions, is an anathema to
> our libertarian instincts.
>
>
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