[beavus]

Self-awareness comes along somewhere around 6 - 9 months.

Should self-awareness be the criterion for recognizing rights? I supposed I'd be pretty hard-pressed to demonstrate that my cat is self-aware. So you think recognition of rights developed out of a recognition of self-awareness?

[hocndoc]

No, if you follow the conversation, I was making the point that self-awareness (or "knowing you're alive") is not necessary for a human to be a person, even under our current laws, and the problem with trying to call on sentience as a necessary criteria for the right to life - or the right not to be killed - of a human.