3 ms·
When does this miraculous event (the potentially human becoming human) occur?
by mjh2539 9y ago
When does this miraculous event (the potentially human becoming human) occur?
- dsr_ 9y agoWhenever the relevant legal threshold happens. Here's the Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beginning_of_human_personhood https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beginning_of_human_personhood
- mjh2539 9y agoThis isn't remotely unsatisfying to you? Is E. Coli E. Coli, or a quark a quark, only when we pass a law that says that it is? You don't see how this view (arbitrarily assigning personhood as a result of legal decree, rather than assenting to the plain natural, empirically verifiable fact) commits you to all sorts of morally untenable positions? For example, "because they're human beings" is no longer a tenable objection to the person who wants to kill Jews on account of the law they passed precluding Jews from personhood. How would someone, like you, give a defense when you no longer have recourse to the plain, natural, empirically verifiable fact that they are human beings?