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Politics : Should God be replaced? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TigerPaw who wrote (20794)	7/1/2005 12:09:42 AM
From: Solon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 28931

"The only reason anyone wonders about such subjects as themselves, or fetuses, or souls is because of self awareness." Well said. Without the question there is no controversy. All of us (sort of) remember when we became self aware...even though it was not an exact moment. Before that we were leaves in the wind--alive just as leaves are. We were born as the leaves--and we die the same way. The difference is only (possibly) this: WE may die with bravery and dignity.

To: TigerPaw who wrote (20794)	7/1/2005 11:09:51 AM
From: Oeconomicus	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 28931

"There is no clear distinct event to divide an unaware newborn and a more mature baby. That is why the unequivacal event of birth makes good legal sense." If "self-awareness" is your standard for "humanness", and if one only achieves self-awareness some time well after birth, then your picking any point prior to that does not logically follow from your standard. Arbitrarily choosing age one, age one month, birth, first trimester, or conception all follow equally as logically from your standard - that is, not at all. "Self-awareness is the one and only distinction that makes us human" So, a severely mentally disabled, but otherwise apparently human, being who never develops the mental capacity for some vague notion of self-awareness (you never did say how you define that) is not, by your standard, human? Again, you leave the door open to killing them out of "mercy" or merely for the convenience for others. That's the same door your standard opens to infanticide, BTW, which point you didn't answer either. PS: "Homo" does not mean "wise". It means "man". "Sapiens" means "wise."