Quote:
Originally Posted by inBOIL
This is what we need, but the problem is that fetal development is a gradual thing. Any line that's drawn will be imprecise and somewhat arbitrary. It might make sense to develop a series of legal definitions of personhood, each more restrictive than the last, to govern what can and can't be done at a certain stage of development. (e.g. a class I fetus can be aborted for any reason, a class III can be aborted only if the mother's health is at risk) Of course, this just makes the line-drawing more complicated, and although it may be more representative of biological reality, I'm not sure it's a better moral solution.
This is part of the problem with defining 'human'. If you rely on CNS development, you invite comparisons between humans and other animals. There's a point at which a human fetus is less developed than an adult cow. If you accept this metric (for example) as a justification for abortion, then you can also apply it to humans that are severely mentally retarded or injured. If an adult human has lower neural functioning than a cow, does he lose the right to life? I think most people would say no. Any rule we create governing abortion has to hold in other situations concerning people with diminished capacities.
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I agree that there is a lot of imprecision with all of it, and unfortunately this is an issue that people will never unanimously agree on. I don't know what best solution is, though I have my personal opinions.
I do want to point out I wasn't using levels of cognitive development as a cut off point. I value even most disabled human above the brightest cow, even if the cow is smarter. Yes, a full grown animal is more developed than a 4 week old fetus, but the animal still isn't human. The fetus is, it just isn't finished growing. That's why I put
my line at the start of CNS development. It's past the point of separation for twins, which we know gives different individuals, but at that point the fetus starts to develop what becomes its own brain. It's not from a real doctor, but I agree with the quote: “If the soul exists, it exists in the brain” Dr. Suresh on Heroes
Yes, this is my opinion, but too many people ignore the issue of the child in the name of personal freedom. Most people are against late term abortion under normal circumstances, but then it's all shades of grey. It's just that the same arguments used to support late term are used the rest of the time too, so I don't consider them valid (that's not saying there aren't arguments for abortion that don't apply to late term.)