Hey Steve, [Steve] > 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.
You keep referring to "we." But, I wonder who "we" are. Are "we" the citizens of a state? A nation? A group of judges on a national supreme court? A global supreme court? Those who voice an opinion on Internet? On MOQ_discuss? The Founding Fathers who held it as self-evident that all men are are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, among these are Life . . .? All, some or none of the above? Thanks, Platt 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/
