Robert.Frederking%CMU-CS-CAD@sri-unix.UUCP (11/08/83)
bot really enjoy being a slave, by setting up the appropriate top-level goals. Should this be illegal? I think not. Suppose we reach the point where we can alter fetuses (see "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley) to the point where they *really* enjoy being slaves to whoever buys them. Should this be illegal? I think so. What if we build fetuses from scratch? Harder to say, but I suspect this should be illegal. The most conservative (small "c") approach to the problem is to grant human rights to anything that *might* qualify as intelligent. I think this would be a mistake, unless you allow biological organisms a distinction as outlined above. The next most conservative approach seems to me to leave the situation where it is today: if it is physically an independent human life, it has legal rights.