[WikiEN-l] Re: Is "fetus" = "human life" POV?

[Phroziac]

Am I a human?

On 7/27/05, Daniel P. B. Smith <dpbsmith at verizon.net> wrote:
> > From: steve v <vertigosteve at yahoo.com>
> >
> > Question: Is it POV to say that a fetus is a "human
> > life," and by terminology, thus entitled to universal
> > "human rights" and societal "personhood" status?
> 
> I think there certainly is a point of view involved here, in the
> sense that there is a continuous spectrum of things ranging from
> things that few would consider to be "human life" and things that
> most would consider to be "human life," and anywhere you draw the
> line represents some kind of point of view.
> 
> I'm going to list some points in that spectrum. I ask you, _not_
> where you draw the line, but whether it is _possible_ to draw that
> line anywhere without expressing a point of view.
> 
> 1) Since a mouse shares about 90% of its genome with humans, wouldn't
> a Martian consider that for all intents and purposes a mouse is
> practically "human" life?
> 
> 2) At this point, it has been established that rats dream. Over the
> past couple of decades, ethologists have increasingly adopted the,
> well, point of view that the concept of "consciousness" has
> scientific validity... and that mammals in fact are conscious.
> Probably most people, scientists or not, would agree that mammals are
> capable of feeling physical pain, and that many of them are capable
> of feeling emotions such as grief or joy. By virtue of sharing the
> mental characteristics that constitute human personhood, are they
> essentially "human" life and entitled to "personhood?"
> 
> 3) Are the red blood cells in the last blood donation I made, alive?
> (They metabolize and do many things but cannot reproduce). If they
> are alive, they are certainly human. Are they "human life?"
> 
> 4) How about cells scraped from the inside of my cheeks, which are a
> classic high-school material for studying chromosomes?
> 
> 5) How about my white blood cells, which have nuclei and contain my
> genome and can reproduce themselves, but cannot with present
> technology reproduce another human being?
> 
> 6) How about a human kidney, removed from a car accident victim who
> is carrying an organ donor card? That is, there is no reasonable
> doubt that the person involved is "dead," yet the kidney is "still
> alive," and is certainly "human?"
> 
> 7) How about my sperm cells, which are certainly alive and certainly
> human and can reproduce another human being when combined with
> genetic material from an ovum, but cannot with present technology
> reproduce another human being _by themselves?_
> 
> 8) How about a sperm and an ovum, considered together, during the
> time period when the sperm has entered the ovum fertilization
> membrane has lifted, so that it is all but certain that a) no other
> sperm can fertilize that ovum and b) that particular sperm will in
> fact fertilize the ovum... but the nuclei have not yet merged? At
> this point in time, the probability that a human being will develop
> is almost the same as it is just after fertilization, and in both
> cases we know exactly "who" it will be (in the sense of knowing the
> genetic complement).
> 
> 9) You use the word "fetus," so I assume you accept the ordinary
> distinction between a "fetus" and "embryo" (less than 8 weeks old).
> IS an embryo human life? Just like the separate egg-and-sperm just
> prior to fertilization, the embryo is pretty much predestined to
> _become_ human life, but it doesn't look like a human being and it
> doesn't look different from a nonhuman embryo. Is it "human life?"
> 
> 10) first-trimeter fetuses
> 
> 11) second-trimester fetuses
> 
> 12) third-trimester fetuses
> 
> 13) Newborn infants
> 
> 14) Toddlers
> 
> 
> 
> 
> --
> Jean is going to be bicycling 83 miles in the Pan Mass Challenge in
> August, raising money for cancer research. Her profile is at http://
> www.pmc.org/mypmc/profiles.asp?Section=story&eGiftID=JS0417
> 
> 
> 
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