Rahul Wrote:We should treat them with respect. After all it is the living remains of a person that used to exist, yet no longer exists. We should respectfully turn off the machines, and prepare their physical remains carefully in the manner we bury all of the dead.
Just as fr0d0 points out, why do you feel an obligation to treat a once living human with respect, but not a growing human? Does the qualifier that a brain dead person 'used' to have higher brain function, therefore is more of a human that a zygote, really make sense? Does it matter that the human on life support used to have a brain if it no longer does? Why?
That is you projecting the value of a human life onto something that does not. What makes you different from someone who is pro-life then, for the very same reason?
Quote:It is NOT a human. That person is gone. When law enforcement finds a dead body they don't say they found the person. They say they found their "remains". For a reason.
The brain dead person is a human, just as the growing fetus is. They are both members of the species homo sapiens. The term 'person' carries with it connotations of something more than just human. A person has personality. Feelings, thoughts, memories. A dead body is without personage. A zygote and a fetus are not dead bodies.
View it this way. You have person A on life support. Their higher brain function is absent from birth. However, there is a high probability that this person could have cognitive function in the future. Would you feel justified in killing this person because they are not a 'person' now, even though potential is there?
Quote:Keeping their corpse artificially alive just for sentiment I find very insulting to their memory.
I agree.
Quote:A growing fetus is not a person. This is the heart of what we are talking about. Its brain hasn't developed far enough for anything to fire on to make it a person. No higher brain functions.
A growing fetus is a person.
Quote:per·son
/ˈpərsən/
Noun
A human being regarded as an individual.
Used in legal or formal contexts to refer to an unspecified individual.
You seem to differentiate between person and human while they both mean the same thing, yet carry different connotations.
Quote:This seems beside the point to you. Because it is a "human life".
What exactly is a "human life"? Is a brain dead corpse on life support a "human life"?
They are both human, yes.
Quote:I believe we have to define what you mean there before I can grasp what you are thinking.
Actually this made me think of "The Walking Dead". So let's think about that scenario with "Walkers". Now that person used to exist. But they are gone inside. The person that used to inhabit that body is gone. Their DNA says they are human. But are you saying that person still exists because DNA says it is that person? Are you like that old farmer guy saying, "No, I know this person. They're just sick." or do you act like most of the characters and say, "No. That person is gone. Kill it."?
It seems like you would say they are humans and we should respect the Walkers because that's human life. Where I would just blow its brain out saying, "That person is dead. It's just an animated corpse."
I am able to discern between ending a growing life and ending a life that has already had the chance to grow into what you would call a 'person'. I can not logically justify the taking of a human life when that life has every potential for having a personage of it's own and has every right to life as we do. Just because a zygote is at a different stage of growth and development from you or I does not, in my view, give it less rights than us. As a society we are judged by how we protect the innocent and vulnerable. If you think that taking a life before it has had a chance to live and speak for itself, is more justifiable than taking the life of a human husk for sentimental reasons, then your argument is no better than mine and makes even less sense.
In your zombie scenario, I would not liken killing a zombie to terminating the life of a fetus, because the zombie is dead, but the fetus is not.