(May 18, 2012 at 9:57 am)Phil Wrote:(May 18, 2012 at 9:50 am)Mosrhun Wrote: So you're telling me that he can actually think? Clarify his condition please. Also, Jackman I was being sarcastic about the email to the family, I am a dickhead but I would never condone that.
No I never said anything about thinking. He has a brain stem and that is what keeps him alive. His condition is anencephaly. I made the same mistake twice by typing forebrain without the word missing first. Anencephaly is a genetic problem where the child is born with a missing forebrain a functioning brain stem. Usually the brain they do have is exposed since most of the skull and scalp is missing.
My answer would be this, although it's probably not the kindest one. You won't find it at the end of a Disney movie.
"Being" anything in the first place requires cognitive thought and conscious awareness. Otherwise you just are, you're not really experiencing the sensation of "life". He is human in species and deserves all the civil rights of any other human and I would never argue otherwise. However, being a person requires that he is capable of rationalizing his existence, being able to think and reason. In this situation I would say this child is a human, but not a "person".
Let me further add that this is an awful condition and I can only imagine the pain it has caused his parents. I would never tell them that their son is not a person, just out of empathy.
