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Originally Posted by tisonlyi
All central nervous systems are not equal.
Even the Central Nervous System of a 20-22 week foetus can't be made to develop anywhere approaching properly or near acceptably outside the womb even if you can have the entity there _survive_ to a full term 'age' at least. i.e. At that point there's still not enough matter there to kick-start with.
The abortion laws were hotly debated in the UK a few years ago based on distorted evidence presented through certain newspapers... This is how I came to look into it. I may be off on some of my figures, but the gist holds.
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I never claimed that this is the point where a fetus can survive without outside help. I know it's not fully developed, but it's
human. A full grown cow, with complete brain and everything I'm ok with killing, eating even. It's just the point, to me, where a person (and not their support system/organs) begins.
The reason I make the distinction, (I don't make any laws so all of this is my opinion) is that you don't count your arm as a separate entity from yourself, even if cut off. The difference between biological mass and an individual life is due to the brain/nervous system. That's why the mad scientists talk about brain transplants.
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Originally Posted by Halanna
Maybe I should have paid more attention in biology or some other class, but nothing about this description suggests life to me.
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How is it not life? It's organic matter reproducing and growing. My point is that once neural activity exists in a human brain, there's something going on, and I believe it has rights. Where do you draw the line? I think it's silly to say that a baby isn't it's own entity until the cord is cut, or that depending on the hospital it could or could not be viable. I'm just trying to find a specific, scientifically justifiable point.
That might be our problem, as objectively speaking, I might be able to pass on more genes if I were to rape and murder my way to the top without getting caught long enough, but we reject that as a society so there's more to it than that.