But thats just it - people are people. Animals are not. But thats probably the carnivore in me speaking.
And blacks are blacks, and whites are whites. Men are men, and women are women. You do realize this is the exact line of thinking every racist and sexist has ever used right?
All spoons are cutlury, but not all cutlery is spoons. Humans are a special and wonderful kind of animal IMHO, far more so than any domesticated creatureFirstly, I shall ignore the potential insinuation that I am either a sexist or racist. Secondly, the point I was trying to make was that Homo Sapiens Sapiens ae not Canines, Felines, Bovines, or anything - we are far more. This is something that I was only aware of when I looked into the eyes of my first born when she was seconds old - human life is wonderful. This isnt to say that fish life, or lizard life or whatever isnt fantastic - they are, just not quite up there with us. I refuse wholehartedly that considering Humanity special and more important
to humanity than pretty much any living organism that we know of is in any way, shape or form a negative behavioural trait.
Do not forget that the reason our offspring are so much more stunted than those of other species is due to our bipedal posture (infants needing to be born before brain develops due to narrowness of birth canal), which in part is probably responsible for our intelligence. You
probably couldnt have such a smart species in our image without having babies that seemed uselessness. In tun this allwed stronger family units to develop, and all the benefits that come with it like langauge, culture etc.
Still, having said all this, the idea that it would be ok to kill near term babies because it is ok to kill pigs is absurd. At least pigs are killed for food - which brings us back to the whole "human need" thing...
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Using the end of the first trimester as a benchmark has been an accepted measure for a long time, and one I don't see any reason to change.
I should do a little research on why this benchmark is accepted, because the fact that it's accepted doesn't do anything for me.
AFAIK its to do with the whole 12 weeks thing. Most parents are told not to announce thier preganacy until after 12 weeks. This is as most failed pregnancies miscarry before the 12th week. Its also the week in which parents are offered the first ultrasound scan to check the foetus is developing as expected - its early enough to spot most major issues, and early enough to allow any treatment not to be to damaging to the mother. Getting pregnant isnt quite as easy as badly educated teen parents make out. Most attempts lead to millions of dead sperm and an unfertilized egg. Even if it does get fertilized it probably wont even undergo mitosis correctly. Even if it does it probably wont make it to the uterine lining...
But it does have a human brain nonetheless, and that is why a baby is a person and a fetus isn't.
So as long as it's a human brain, and not an animal brain, it's a person. Because humans are humans, and animals are animals.
Yeah, pretty much. You don't see animals building skyscrapers, so it's not exactly subjective to say that we're kind of the odd species out when it comes to mentality.
You do realize, "it's moral because we are human and we say so" isn't actually a valid argument?
But who else gets to decide the morals? Arent they a constructed set of boundaries based on what behavoirs we are exposed to?