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- Newsgroups: talk.abortion
- Path: sparky!uunet!europa.asd.contel.com!darwin.sura.net!spool.mu.edu!umn.edu!csus.edu!netcom.com!bskendig
- From: bskendig@netcom.com (Brian Kendig)
- Subject: Re: The christian perspective...?
- Message-ID: <s6yncrh.bskendig@netcom.com>
- Date: Tue, 15 Sep 92 00:03:23 GMT
- Organization: Starfleet Headquarters: San Francisco
- References: <1992Sep12.221826.29672@watson.ibm.com> <1992Sep14.221203.24674@nntp.uoregon.edu>
- Lines: 44
-
- eric_gorr@coglab_psych.uoregon.edu (Eric Gorr) wrote (in article <1992Sep14.221203.24674@nntp.uoregon.edu>):
- >In article <1992Sep12.221826.29672@watson.ibm.com>, Larry Margolis
- ><margoli@watson.ibm.com> writes:
- >> In <__wnybq.bskendig@netcom.com> bskendig@netcom.com (Brian Kendig) writes:
- >> > a fetus isn't a child. In fact, I personally don't consider a fetus to
- >> > be a person or anything more than a mass of organic tissue until eight
- >> > weeks after conception, at which time the brain and nervous system
- >> > begins to form. Until then, the fetus is incapable of feeling
- >> > pain, and in fact has no consciousness.
- >
- >So, am I correct in assuming that a human must be able to feel pain and be
- >recognizably conscious to be a person?
- >
- >If this is not the case, then please explain your position more
- >clearly.
-
- I see the trap in your question (if you get him drunk and he passes
- out, is he no longer a person?). ;)
-
- The reason I mentioned pain specifically was in response to another
- post which said that abortions involve a lot of pain to the fetus. I
- disagree with this, because before a certain point in its development,
- the fetus doesn't have nerves to feel pain with, nor a functioning
- brain that can register pain.
-
- And the "consciousness" I refer to isn't the same as "being
- conscious". I'm still working on a viable definition of consciousness
- -- can anyone help me? It seems like an intuitive concept, but I
- can't think of the words to describe it.
-
- I'll provide an example, though: A human adult, a dog, Data from "Star
- Trek", a baby, and a nine-month fetus possess "consciousness" -- I
- suppose it's in that they are capable of having moods and of thinking.
- A brain-dead human adult, an ant, a chess program, and a two-month
- fetus don't possess "consciousness", in my opinion.
-
- << Brian >>
-
- --
- _/_/_/ Brian Kendig Macintosh Jedi Live never to be ashamed
- _/_/ Starfleet Captain Oracle Employee if anything you do or say
- _/ Intrepid Adventurer Saturn SL2 Owner is published around the world
- bskendig@netcom.com Wizard of Frobozz -- even if what is published
- Princeton '92! BSE/CS Writer/Actor/Singer is not true.
-