Hmm. By "self-aware", do you mean "the capacity to become the object of one's attention" or "to see oneself as one is seen by others"?
Some people never achieve the latter, BTW. ;-)
As for your idea that "children should begin to get their own rights ... somewhere after age one and before age five" and that "prior to that they have a variety of animal rights", by that standard, infanticide could be considered perfectly acceptable if either done out of one's idea of "mercy" (as in putting down a wounded animal) or simply because the child isn't wanted (as in putting down a dog that is deemed unadoptable).
The only "rights" that are or should be withheld from children are either really just legal privileges of law abiding adults(e.g. driving a car, voting) or withheld for the protection of the child because he (or she) is not yet able to protect himself (e.g. not being able to smoke, drink, consent to sex, enter into contracts, etc.). These are all just modest restrictions on their liberty. But if they are not deemed a "person with rights", as we like to say here, then much more basic rights are in jeopardy.
Self-awareness is a poor standard, TP. |
