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.