Instead, the uniqueness of the human, that which makes a human a human, is not his genetic potential, not his gene code, it is his mind. And the mind doesn't develop right away. I can't tell you when the mind reaches the stage of a human, but it isn't when it is a small clump of cells right after conception.
Thanks for this. You've articulated my "position", so far anyway. Now do the harder part, and tell me when the mind does develop enough to acquire legal protection. (perhaps you do later in the thread)
I don't know exactly. And reasonable people can reasonably disagree.
A similar question is when a child becomes an adult. You know though, some never do, and some do a lot younger than the average.
tpaine's point in #96 seems to say it as well I could. A reasonable but arbitrary point, as opposed to an unreasonably arbitrary point.
For the record, by the way, I believe a woman retains sovereignty over her body ALWAYS and can expell a fetus at any point she chooses. The question is how you treat the expelled entity -- as a human or not. Viability and other estimations of human life speak to that point -- and not whether a woman MUST bring a birth to term (there are always death risks with live birth and a woman should never be forced to risk her own life for another if she chooses not to.)