Re: POL: Abortion-neutral

Alexander 'Sasha' Chislenko (sasha1@netcom.com)
Tue, 16 Mar 1999 17:42:57 -0500

At 17:15 03/16/99 , Tim Hruby wrote:

>However, I think Eliezer is wrong in assuming (or purposefully framing) the
>abortion question around "sentience." Many people frame the question as
>one of "having a soul."

Well, those are the non-sentient ones, that's the point... :-)

> Many others think the reasonable question is
>"potential for sentience/intelligence/humanity" (after all, a newborn human
>is much less sentient than my cat).

Exactly. Potentially sentient entities should have potential rights, real entities-real rights. I could claim that every fertile woman who passes by is a potential for carrying my sentient offspring, and she would commit a crime if she refuses to do everything possible to bring this potentiality into existence.

Of course, a fetus is less intelligent, sensitive, purposeful, coordinated, etc. than a cat or even a frog. It takes a real idiot to go against all reason and claim that this blob of flesh that can later turn into a sentient human if given proper food and education (*everything* can be turned into a sentient human with proper addition of matter and knowledge) is somehow "sacred" just because of this fact or because it looks somewhat like a human.

But then, of course, a newborn baby is also inferior to a cat, so rationally, getting rid of them is ethically no worse than killing a cow - right? And then, there are mentally retarded folk who will never turn into anything sentient... But that's really different... right?



Alexander Chislenko <sasha1@netcom.com> Home: <http://www.lucifer.com/~sasha/home.html> Work: <http://intelligenesis.net>