Hi MP,
> MP: This is the same as Arlo's attempt at diverting discussion from MoQ to the > concept that everything requires faith to affirm, thus faith is irrelevant. > > Yes, one can nihilistically boil all of reality down to "just stuff in a > continuum" but > its altogether a useless way to practically live in reality as we know it. > I've > already noted this, validated the POV you raise, but noted that such a POV is > not relevant to this discussion because it effectively negates all discussion. > > Either one accepts that part of human existence is drawing real lines in a > practical reality OR that such lines are pointless in hypothetical > metaphysical > constructs. I was trying to address the issue of trying to draw a line during the development of a fetus between a human person that we will give rights to and a mass of cells that we don't give rights to. Anti-abortionists think that the only place where we can meaningfully draw a line is at conception. It is this assumption that I am criticizing. I think we can draw real lines for distinguishing humanity during fetal development because we already do draw a real line for distinguishing humanity from nonhuman ancestors. And the line that we decide to draw would be as real as the one we've already drawn. Drawing the line at 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 9 weeks, etc. would be no more arbitrary than drawing the line at some point in time between homo sapiens sapiens and previous ancestors. At some point our ancestors were not just animals but human beings with human rights, and we can say the same thing about a developing fetus at some point in gestation. One obvious distinction is the presence of a brain. We certainly have no problem unplugging the brain dead, so a fetus (if that is the right term at that point) with no brain may be destroyed. It seems to me that the capacity for suffering is a big part of the isue. I have no doubt that a little girl with a spinal injury suffers far more than a ball of 150 cells, so the morality of destroying such cells to help a little girl seems obvious. Best, Steve Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
