And the Civil War was about state's rights and not slavery: a rank piece of sophistic re-writing of history. — tim wood
Reject the CA, if you see something better. — Banno
But you're dancing around the question. What is a human being? Why is a sperm attached to an egg a person and a fingernail not? — Hanover
Why do you think that the action of reproduction is an exercise of any right? — tim wood
A quibble. A one second old embryo has minimal worth, but a 10 year old child infinite worth. At what moment in time does this thing have sufficient worth to cause us to protect it fully? That moment is called personhood. — Hanover
No, no, no. That's not actually reflective of reality. There is no objective point at which sufficient worth can be attained. The whole reason why this topic is so controversial is because there is such variation. Different people value this "thing" differently or not at all depending on a number of subjective factors. People have different feelings, different priorities, different ways of thinking. That's the key determinant here, not personhood. Your rules are not the rules. There are no rules we must all adhere to, we each set our own. — S
You’re being obtuse. You are a human being; you have been one from the moment you began to develop. You did not develop from a sperm cell, you did not develop from an egg cell, you have never been a liver cell, you have never been a fingernail. The combination of the former two was your conception and beginning; the latter two are simply a part of you. — AJJ
If I have a stack of wood, a saw, and a set of plans, do I have a table? — Hanover
This strikes me as a global objection to ethical analysis generally and a declaration of ethical subjectivism, — Hanover
You speak of the massive variations in opinions and subjective viewpoints, but there's actually a well formed consensus on whether the intentional killing of a healthy, bouncing baby boy is unethical. — Hanover
If we can't say whether the killing of an embryo is objectively wrong because all such determinations are necessarily subjective, then it follows we can't say the same for the murder of you and me. — Hanover
If I've misunderstood your position and you actually believe there is an objective basis to declare the murder of you or me unethical, then you'll have to explain why those same objective criteria cannot be used to evaluate what may rightly be done to embryos. — Hanover
No objection whatsoever to ethical analysis generally. A declaration of ethical subjectivism? Why not? — S
I meant that there's a variation within a particular range to the extent that it makes this a highly controversial topic. — S
I certainly judge murder to be deeply wrong. My moral overview is not that nothing is wrong and that therefore anything goes, which is the suggestion I suspect you of planting. I just don't believe in objective morality. — S
If that was true, we could expect resolution in the form of one side coming to its senses. — frank
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