"I don't agree that being human is about consciousness or higher reasoning. Some humans are not at the conscious at any particular moment, and many are very limited in their reasoning ability, also its quite possible (in my opinion likely) that there are conscious, reasoning alien races. They would not be human"
So it is not about consciousness, compassion, or feeling--it is biology (a certain classification system which changes from time to time) which makes us "human" rather than "alien". I have no problem with that unless we are dealing with matters of law; but do you have a reason to value "humans" more than aliens when both are reasoning beings? And, if not, then why not? Or is the ability to reason irrelevant as to why you value human life? Your posts seem to indicate a strict love-in with genetic code--regardless of whether the consciousness differs from that of an ant? If that is so, then I wonder on what basis being "human" is important to you, if it is? And I ask again...is it not immoral (in your mind) to kill animals because your holster is better oiled? or is there some underlying preference for humanity not related to either competence, or level of consciousness or reason?
"The claim is the claim of the fetus or zygote, society would be acting on his or her behalf. The sperm has no claim."
On what basis? Neither have consciousness; both have potential to become part of a reasoning entity (which is not important to you, if I am not mistaken). But is your only answer that a 5 second old zygote is biologically human? Well, it is hardly more "potentially" human (AND CONSCIOUS) than googols of sperm swimming to fertilization at that precise moment.
We both agree that the fertilized egg is human. But why do these googols of "humans" attract your personal affection when (or if) they have no souls--and as they have no consciousness and no sentience? On what basis at that point in time do you prejudice ants, cows, pigs, and litterbugs?
"I don't think that what winds up getting destroyed is still a fertilized egg. I think at that point it is a multi-celled organism (even if it has only 2 or 4 cells) but its still very few cells so you might consider this a technicality. Also most induced abortions occur later."
Not only can the MA pill destroy a fertilized egg, but so can thousands of substances and events interacting with the profound biology of the mother. YOU can cause the abortion at 30 seconds when she discovers you are having an affair and she has a nervous breakdown or binges on percodan or cabernet for a week.
If the pencil-dot egg is ever to be given status as a legal person, then we must all be placed in an induced coma from birth till death and be intravenously fed by Government nurse robots till the sun explodes. Alternatively, we can seek a world beneficial for all humanity, and we can make intentional abortions a rare necessity. |
