[Peace-discuss] Re: [UCprogressives] Re: Pro-choice [was Re: letter to my former comrades]

[ppatton at uiuc.edu]

>
>Your argument depends on a description of personhood (or as 
you say
>humanity) that includes the traits of "self awareness, higher
>cognition..., the ability to learn and use a language, and 
the capacity
>for emotional experience," such that, if a organism lacks 
all of these, it
>may legitimately be killed.  (That list would seemingly 
grant humanity or
>personhood to many mammals -- my dog has the fourth 
characteristic,
>probably the first, and she certainly has the "particularly 
important ...
>ability to anticipate the future," when I park the car in 
the vet's
>parking lot...)

Carl-
I think I agree with you that my list of traits is 
inadequate, and are nothing more than a sketch of what might 
acturally be needed.  I should have simply said that the 
psychological traits that distinguish humans from other 
animals are dependent on the function of the cerebral cortex, 
and left it at that.  Thanks for the reference to the Marquis 
paper, I'm interested in exploring these matters in more 
detail when I have time, and I'll check it out.  In general 
though, I'm skeptical of an argument that relies on the 
fetuse's future potential rather than on its current state as 
a basis for judging its moral worth.  
-Paul P.

__________________________________________________________________
Dr. Paul Patton
Research Scientist
Beckman Institute  Rm 3027  405 N. Mathews St.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign  Urbana, Illinois 61801
work phone: (217)-265-0795   fax: (217)-244-5180
home phone: (217)-344-5812
homepage: http://netfiles.uiuc.edu/ppatton/www/index.html

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.  It is the
source of all true art and science."
-Albert Einstein
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