On 22/1/03 11:18 AM, "ShieldsFamily" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Peter, Are you saying that a human life is NOT a human person? Then
> whattheheck is it??? Wouldn�t you agree that they are both HUMANS? (I�m
> assuming that prior to your birth you were not an aardvark.) Izzy
G'day Izzy, Laura et al
Brrrr! Laura, I think that I will only go to Nashville in the Summer,
assuming it is above zero Celsius then :)
Izzy, I find language can be a real problem as words come with a whole
semantic domain ("areas" of meaning). "Human life" does this as it has a
number of meanings (well OK it's 2 words).
Bible writers say that God gives and takes away breath and links this to the
life which He gives. Paul writes, that if you are not born you can do
nothing either good or bad.
I take it from the Bible then, that a human person is created when the
newly-born takes its first breath of air.
This distinguishes it from a still born child which grew in the womb; moved
and kicked and yet never came to be a living person. (Sorry if this creates
any painful memories.) It was clearly human life in a species sense, but
never A human life in the sense of a living breathing person.
Biologists and medical ethicists have great difficulty in deciding what can
be done or not done at various times, because there is no real consensus as
to what human status a zygote/blastomere/morula/blastocyst/embryo/foetus has
at any time. Oh, there seems some agreement that successful implantation
makes a difference and that zygotes are not persons in any way.
Since women do absorb the occasional zygote and embryo back into their
bodies, personhood for these, would make a lot of women multiple persons or
even perhaps cannibals.
Like most people, I can't remember anything before I was 2 years old, as
cognitive memory hadn't formed before that. Maybe I was an aardvark - that
would explain a few things :). By the way, what do they look like?
Cheers
Peter
--
Peter Eyland
Sydney Australia
Web page: http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~epe
----------
"Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you
ought to answer every man." (Colossians 4:6) http://www.InnGlory.org
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