flink@umcp-cs.UUCP (Paul V. Torek) (07/13/85)
Charles Forsythe writes in <346@mit-vax.UUCP>: >Sorry I missed your arguement in previous postings, but this seems >absurd. What if the woman's (or man's) birth control fail? Does that >mean she secretly wanted the fetus? My argument was that people (or their moral equivalents) have a right not to be disturbed in a harmful way from the condition in which they naturally find themselves. This gives the woman the right in the case of rape to her original condition (nonpregnancy); but when the new condition is not brought about against her will, the fetus (if it counts as having rights) has the right to be left in *its* condition. (I got the rights principle out of a consideration of the "siamese twins" case.) >This is a dangerous assertion. Sentience is still a raging philisophical >debate. Consider AI: if a truly intelligent computer were built such >that it could see, feel, hear and interpret these to produce responses >suitable for human cognition (ie experience), then that would suggest >sentient MINERAL life. Fine. Let's get "dangerous". >Also, from your definition, almost all non-fetal animal life is sentient >as well as an incredible amount of vegtable life. Vegetables aren't sentient, they don't even have nervous systems. Yes, most animals are sentient -- so what? There are degrees of sentience, corresponding to the richness of variety of experiences a thing is capable of. But *once an individual animal has any experiences, it deserves the same consideration given to the adult it will become.* From: liz@tove.UUCP (Liz Allen) Message-ID: <271@tove.UUCP> >It is quite difficult to determine when a fetus becomes sentient by >your definition because of the limits of technology. According to >_The Zero People_[1], a 48 day old fetus will twist and turn away when >his upper lip is stroked by a fine hair. It's difficult, but that's life. Better to use a difficult but *relevant* criterion, than to use an easy one which corresponds to no morally significant distinction. --Paul V Torek, the undaunted