Replies

"Right, but that is a matter of opinion. YOU say it is. OTHERS say it is not. Simply stating something doesn't make it true. If that were the case, I could just as likely listen to the opinions of others who state that a blastosphere is not yet human, but it very well might become one, at which point it would then become deserving of protection morally and legally."

No, dear. SCIENCE says it is human. You know--things like biology and biochemistry. It may only be a few cells, but it is damned well human.

There is no such entity as "SCIENCE" which makes statements on whether a blastosphere has the moral equivalence as a human or not. "SCIENCE" doesn't say anything. Scientists however do have opinions on the topic. Most scientists with whom I have discussed this issue consider blastospheres to be not morally equivalent to newborns. But I suspect that you would not consider a poll of biochemists to be the defining word on this matter. Likewise neither scientists in general nor biochemists specifically speak with a unified voice on this topic. There are many different opinions. To suggest that SCIENCE has concluded that blastospheres are equivalent to humans is incorrect. To suggest that scientists view blastospheres as having the same genetic fingerprint as developed humans is correct. But it is not necessarily relevant if one entity has the same genes as another. An acorn is not an oak.

"Many people, including many Christians, believe that capital punishment is murder. Simply stating that it is not murder does not make it so."

Sorry, but the dictionary says you (and they) are wrong.

You are ascribing to me views which I have not stated are my own. I noted that many Christians believe capital punishment is murder. I did not state that I believe that proposition. I also did not state that I do not believe that proposition.

"1. The unlawful killing of one human by another, especially with premeditated malice. "

"The unlawful killing of a human being with deliberate intent to kill: (1) murder in the first degree is characterized by premeditation."

Since capital punishment is, by definition, lawfully done, it is not murder.

If the dictionary were the final word on the matter, then you and I would both have to accept that abortion is not murder, since it is legally performed in the United States, whereas we both know that it is, in fact, murder.

There are also dozens of dictionaries with dozens of differing definitions. It is hardly relevant to the moral question of whether a blastosphere is equivalent to a human that a dictionary does not consider capital punishment to be murder. It is quite relevant to this discussion that many people of conscience do consider abortion and capital punishment and euthanasia all to be murder, despite their omission from your dictionary.

jas3

"An acorn is not an oak."

But it will be.

Here's the science. At conception, a biochemical reaction starts that aggregates elements from the environment around itself, forming a distinct human individual. That biochemical process continues until, for whatever reason, the unique individual in question can no longer sustain the process (i.e. death). There are only two distinct "end-points" in that process. You can piss and moan all you want about "clumps of cells" not being human, but that doesn't change the science. Those two points are the only ones that can be uniquely identified.