RE: Abortion/Consciousness/Life
September 4, 2014 at 1:43 am
(This post was last modified: September 4, 2014 at 1:51 am by The Grand Nudger.)
Ah, our old friend context. Yeah, gonna have to learn that one, never heard that on an atheist forum before.
yup. yup, thought so...
However - in the case of the legal standing regarding abortion, it might be a deciding factor. So, there's your context for you. I'm glad we had this discussion about the word context. You simply cannot run afoul of the rights of a non-entity. Does consciousness, and being conscious have an effect on our concept of personhood? Yes. Even "diminished" consciousness has an effect (as in the case of the incompetent patient). Similarly, no sleeping person may enter into a contract, lol. All of this, of course, ignores the fact that we have another set of rights to consider. And while we may say that she cannot do this or that - there are still things that we say the state cannot do -to her-. Has to be approached from both angles or else the resolution will be unsatisfactory. -That- is why it's a thorny issue, in a nutshell.
Quote:Next you are the one that brought legality into this not meYou did ask whether or not a fetus was human, and whether they should have human rights, didn't you?. Rights are a legal issue, amigo.
yup. yup, thought so...
Quote:is the presense of consciousness required to be considered human or have human rights?post 98
Quote:but it is nothing but legal to adhere to the wishes of a competent patient-and an incompetent patient? What happened to his rights? He might be both conscious, and possessing "consciousness". As we've both decided, whether a person is conscious or not, or whether or not they possess consciousness as an attribute, doesn;t seem to be the deciding factor here.
However - in the case of the legal standing regarding abortion, it might be a deciding factor. So, there's your context for you. I'm glad we had this discussion about the word context. You simply cannot run afoul of the rights of a non-entity. Does consciousness, and being conscious have an effect on our concept of personhood? Yes. Even "diminished" consciousness has an effect (as in the case of the incompetent patient). Similarly, no sleeping person may enter into a contract, lol. All of this, of course, ignores the fact that we have another set of rights to consider. And while we may say that she cannot do this or that - there are still things that we say the state cannot do -to her-. Has to be approached from both angles or else the resolution will be unsatisfactory. -That- is why it's a thorny issue, in a nutshell.
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