(March 17, 2013 at 3:01 pm)Esquilax Wrote:(March 17, 2013 at 2:52 pm)catfish Wrote: If a zygote/fetus is not a complete human life, what makes up the other portion of that life?
Thank you, and that's a good question. The zygote only gets one as far as the body, the physical makeup of a person. But that's not what we mourn when a person dies; the body is just a vehicle, after all. The other portion of life is experience, a mind that thinks, senses the world around it, and develops a personality. We as people are nothing more than our personalities and memories, after all, and a fetus has none of that, until it's born and starts actively experiencing the world.
Quote:If you value something about human life, is that value limited to "completeness"?
No, because I don't think there's a point at which a person ever becomes complete. But the value is in the person as a constantly evolving being; putting special significance on the zygote is akin to putting significance in the container. It serves a purpose, for sure, bodies are important, but they aren't us.
Doesn't this mean you respect consciousness and not life itself?
And not putting significance in a zygote is like saying an apple is more important than the seed the started the tree. You can't ever have a "person" without first having a zygote, this goes for everyone.
