RE: Abortion is morally wrong
June 20, 2014 at 9:48 am
(This post was last modified: June 20, 2014 at 10:00 am by Heywood.)
(June 20, 2014 at 9:31 am)JuliaL Wrote:(June 20, 2014 at 9:12 am)Heywood Wrote: Debating if fetuses are human beings is like debating if the earth is round. You are correct in that we should not be debating whether or not fetuses are human beings as this is completely obvious(except to the stupid and incredulous). Personhood has a place in the debate I think so I disagree with you there.Human, yes. Being, no. Or at least there is some grey ground along the continuum of egg, blastula, gastrula, embryo, zygote, fetus, baby. I agree that there should be a line at some point where personhood emerges along with the rights granted that status. But it is a fuzzy grey line placed arbitrarily and seemingly without reflection by anti-choicers at conception. I wish to tease out their justification for this placement. It appears readily open to attack.
I don't wish to open the stem cell COW (can of worms) here, but I'd like to see the justification used to differentiate between 'embryonic' and 'adult' pluripotential cells. Anti-choicers have been claiming that adult stem cells are just fine morally but embryonic aren't. If you could actually revert adult stem cells completely, wouldn't they then be subject to the same moral restrictions as claimed for fertilized eggs? They again, with proper care, share the same potential for development into adult humans.
Stem cells are constituent cells and have no potential by themselves to ever become a human being. To become a human being a stem cell needs to be fused with an unfertilized egg(which has had it nucleolus removed). A stem cell requires the intervention of an intellect and the addition of outside parts. It isn't any more of a human being than a sperm.
Now if this intervention and addition of new parts occurred, you would have a human being. You would have something contiguous, that can grow in the proper environment, reproduce, metabolize, maintain homeostasis, etc.