Seeing as how you are currently my favorite atheist, I thought that I should not let this pass without some kind of comment:
First, fertilized eggs are, at least at some point, chickens, although by convention we call them eggs until they hatch. The issue is not one of seeds not being tomatoes, but of their not being tomato plants, which they most certainly are shortly after germination. In other words, at a certain point, there is an organism growing, and the question of where to draw the line. We do not, of course, identify Person and Adult, and therefore exclude children from Personhood, nor do we exclude infants. Therefore, we do not demand that the organism be fully formed to call it human, merely that it be recognizably a stage in human development. Also, an infant, if untended, would die, as would a severely crippled person, and we do not exclude them from Personhood due to condition of dependency. Therefore, we must show logical cause to exclude the fetus, at some stage of gestation, from Personhood. There is, of course, no rationale after the first trimester, since the infant is fully formed, and may be viable with current technology. Therefore, for those who actually care, there is only the first trimester to argue about.
My argument is that although the doubt should be reflected in less severe penalties, there is no difference in logic between the development that ensues from conception to the third month, and that which ensues from infancy to adulthood, they are all just developmental stages, and therefore the procedure should be illegal. To use the analogy I made a while back, suppose that one shot into a form of uncertain status, not knowing if it were alive or dead? What would be the moral status of the act? Pretty obviously, one would have done wrong....Cobalt mentioned brain activity as a good developmental marker, and there is something to that. However, we do not consider those in a coma to be Unpersons, we only consider depriving lifesupport to those in a persistent vegetative state, and we only deem those with clearly irreversible, flatline brain damage to be dead. Since the embryo will develop neurologically under normal circumstances, it is hard to make out that it is much different from any other developmental stage...
.....In any event, I would be much happier if we could limit abortions to the first trimester, so that although I think that you have been overly dismissive of those who locate Personhood earlier than you, I am pleased that you would support some restrictions at least..... |
