[net.abortion] Possible definitions of 'human'

edjames@ucbvax.UUCP (Ed James) (04/26/84)

[]

	I apologise if this idea has been discussed before, but
	I am new to net.abortion. 

The Parasite.

		In the past, the point of fertilization was claimed 
	to be the point at which an unborn becomes a person, as well 
	as the moment of birth.  

		I now introduce the concept of the parasite:  Could
	it be plausible to think of the unborn that cannot live free
	of it's mother as a parasite?  To my knowledge (I'm sure I'll 
	be corrected) the unborn is totally dependant on it's mother
	until the beginning of the third trimester, when it becomes
	possible that the unborn could survive a Caesarean section
	and grow on it's own.

		Until this point, it is totally dependant on the host.  
	I believe the mother has the right to rid herself of the parasite, 
	as much as she has the right to rid herself of an bacterial 
	infection or insect parasite.  It should be her decision, no
	one elses, to keep the parasite or remove it.

Intelligence as Life.

		Let me relate a story from my High School days.  A 
	friend of mine was run over by a truck during my senior
	year.  All of his brain was gone.  His body, however, did
	not cease functioning.  Was this body still a human, a person?
	It had all of it's chromosomes.  It had all the necessary organs,
	but for the brain.  Did the soul of this man stay with his body?
	Would letting his body die be murder?  If so, would the man who
	drove him over not be guilty of homocide, since the body was not
	really dead?  I think not.

		Does the soul inhabit the brain and leave the body the 
	moment the brain dies?  If you think this is true, then perhaps 
	you should consider the brain (and it's accumulated experience) 
	the same as the soul.

		Now we look at the unborn, partially developed, having
	only instinctual intelligence.  Is it still a murder to take the
	life of the unborn?  I believe that the only thing that makes 
	a human a person is his/her intelligence, his/her mind.  Since there 
	isn't any experience in sitting in a womb for nine months, the unborn 
	has no mind to speak of.  The inborn knowledge is the same survival-type
	instincts found in lower animals.  Do you consider it murder to
	kill cattle?

		If indeed you do think the truck driver was not guilty of
	murder, given that the body did not die, what was he guilty of?
	Battery?

Please respond to net.abortion.  
							--ed
						    ucbvax!edjames