Thank you for that thoughtful, and thought-provoking discussion. (I'm guessing I missed it because you posted it on one of my first days in med school, when my brain was completely overwhelmed.)
I would like to argue back. There are many things I could say: does it really count when conception was artificial and the zygote has never entered a mother's womb; can you really count it as "human" before that's happened. However, all such arguments would be pretty arbitrary. I honestly don't believe there's a single right answer here. Or rather, that it's possible to know a single right answer. My position on therapeutic cloning is based on my own sense of the need to use any possible means to help a person who is suffering. But of course, there are limits even to that: as you pointed out, wanting to help someone who's ill wouldn't justify bashing someone over the head and cutting out their liver.
You might be surprised that my view on abortion is quite conservative by modern standards - and it actually became more conservative as I went through my science degree. I am dead opposed to abortion at any stage where it's already possible to deliver a baby, and for the baby to survive. And these days, that's becoming earlier and earlier. However, when you get to stages before that, there's a big grey area in my mind, where I can't really say for sure what I think is right or wrong. In a perfect world, there'd be no abortion at all. However, it isn't a perfect world, and there are circumstances where I think it is unfortunately necessary, or at least justified.
I strongly disagree with the idea that a child is a "lesser" human being before they have acquired the ability to communicate. From the moment a baby is born - and arguably (though this isn't certain) - before that, it begins to learn, to take in information from its surroundings. It does communicate with its mother, though at first on a very simple level. Newborn babies have a built-in ability to smile, did you know that? Even those who are born blind, and are unable to learn it by imitation. Whether or not a baby's smile can be counted as "communication" is again questionable, but it's something to think about. I still feel that there's a big difference between a fetus at say 5 months of pregnancy, when it has arms and legs and fingers and a heart and a brain, and an embryo at 14 days, when it is about 200 undifferentiated cells. Living cells, yes. But the skin cells you culture in a test tube to treat a burns victim are also living cells.
And I realise I'm starting to argue when I said I wasn't going to, so I'll stop there. Understand that my views are far from set. I'm 21 years old. I have just started a medical degree. There is much, much that I will learn over the next four years, and over the next forty years. :) Your essay has certainly given me some food for thought. Rest assured I am taking it seriously.
I would like to argue back. There are many things I could say: does it really count when conception was artificial and the zygote has never entered a mother's womb; can you really count it as "human" before that's happened. However, all such arguments would be pretty arbitrary. I honestly don't believe there's a single right answer here. Or rather, that it's possible to know a single right answer. My position on therapeutic cloning is based on my own sense of the need to use any possible means to help a person who is suffering. But of course, there are limits even to that: as you pointed out, wanting to help someone who's ill wouldn't justify bashing someone over the head and cutting out their liver.
You might be surprised that my view on abortion is quite conservative by modern standards - and it actually became more conservative as I went through my science degree. I am dead opposed to abortion at any stage where it's already possible to deliver a baby, and for the baby to survive. And these days, that's becoming earlier and earlier. However, when you get to stages before that, there's a big grey area in my mind, where I can't really say for sure what I think is right or wrong. In a perfect world, there'd be no abortion at all. However, it isn't a perfect world, and there are circumstances where I think it is unfortunately necessary, or at least justified.
I strongly disagree with the idea that a child is a "lesser" human being before they have acquired the ability to communicate. From the moment a baby is born - and arguably (though this isn't certain) - before that, it begins to learn, to take in information from its surroundings. It does communicate with its mother, though at first on a very simple level. Newborn babies have a built-in ability to smile, did you know that? Even those who are born blind, and are unable to learn it by imitation. Whether or not a baby's smile can be counted as "communication" is again questionable, but it's something to think about. I still feel that there's a big difference between a fetus at say 5 months of pregnancy, when it has arms and legs and fingers and a heart and a brain, and an embryo at 14 days, when it is about 200 undifferentiated cells. Living cells, yes. But the skin cells you culture in a test tube to treat a burns victim are also living cells.
And I realise I'm starting to argue when I said I wasn't going to, so I'll stop there. Understand that my views are far from set. I'm 21 years old. I have just started a medical degree. There is much, much that I will learn over the next four years, and over the next forty years. :) Your essay has certainly given me some food for thought. Rest assured I am taking it seriously.
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