From: Arets Paeglis (astronfo@gmail.com)
Date: Thu Dec 03 2009 - 07:51:47 MST
Basically, if we are concerned about the abortions topic, the answer
could be [theoretically] simple - the borderline between surgery and
murder is drawn by development of brain. Exactly which stage you would choose for this, I cannot guess, although, if needed, I would suggest the moment when thalamocortical structure is fully developed (at approx. 26 weeks since fertilisation).
Basically, 1, 2 and, with strong confidence in stating this, 3 (since
the body under such conditions, as far as I understand, is at least clinically dead) is not
murder of any sort or kind; 4 theoretically may be murder and 5
certainly is.
On Thu, Dec 03, 2009 at 09:02:36AM -0500, Mike Dougherty wrote:
> On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 5:32 AM, Stathis Papaioannou <stathisp@gmail.com>wrote:
>
> > 1. I do nothing.
> > 2. I gather together the chemicals that would be used to make a copy
> > of you, then destroy them.
> > 3. I assemble the chemicals to make a copy of you, but at a low
> > temperature so that its metabolism is suspended, then destroy it.
> > 4. I allow the copy to warm up so that metabolic processes start up
> > for a microsecond, then destroy it.
> > 5. I allow the copy to wake up, talk to it for a few minutes so that
> > it realises what's going on, then destroy it.
> >
> > 1 to 4 are equivalent: there is no termination of a stream of
> > consciousness, no aggrieved party. But 5 is murder.
> >
> On a related but far jump from this topic... at what point does abortion
> become murder?
> (I'm not really so interested in the whole abortion topic, so consider it a
> semi-rhetorical question)
>
> I was somewhat suprised to see that you make so absolute a statement about
> the difference between 1-4 and 5.
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