NationStates Jolt Archive

Im just wondering how many of you have taken basic philosphy and how you define a person... Whats makes someone a person?

there are common basic answers, like feelings, and actually behing a human, and critical thinking... but when do you become a person ?

I seem to see only two types of answers which people give me (keeping religion and the idea of a soul out of the argument for this moment).. One, personhood is based on the potential for life and mental development.. and the other is some definded level of mental development and mental capaicty, which pro-chioce people seem to take more often..

But if a person becomes a person at 6 months incubation.. and this is based on the development of the brain.. why arn't we carting away those people classified as vegtibales.. how have brain capacities lower then rocks on the beach, or children, whose brains never fully developed and have similar mental capaicties to that of monkeies..

As someone pro-life, im just interested to know from the point of view of a pro-chiocer .. it would hlep me understand their position better O.o

On a second note.. When pro-choicers talk about abortion.. they always bring up, rape, incest, and other extreme cases.. but i wonder.. what percent of all abortions are completed on the case of rape and incest.. ? 10% even stretch it to 20% ? certainly no where near 50% .. instead of allowing people to abuse the system for sake of havin the "choice" why is it wrong to stop abortions for those extreme instances pro-chiocers always point to ?

Well just a story so take with it what you will.

I am pro-choice on the matter.

My wife had a sister. She had CF. It was an extream case to which the doctors said they never saw anything like this before. She lived all of 2 weeks heavily drugged and under machines. My mother-in-law says she thinks she never recognised her due to the drugs.

The costs of the super human effort put them in an economic state that they lived near poverty for many years as they tried to pay off the hospitol bills.

Is this a life worth living?

Why is it many people will choose death if faced with a horrible disease, which will kill them and will place your family at a poverty level. Yet, the unborn have a right to live?

The unborn probably doesn't even know its an entity. Just looking at my girl and listening to other parents comments. Even when they are born, it appears they think they are apart of their mother. Then at a certain age they realise they are a seperate person.

I think Dr. Spock talked about this. If somebody knows otherwise, feel free to correct.

As someone pro-life, im just interested to know from the point of view of a pro-chiocer .. it would hlep me understand their position better O.o




Oh, bull ca-ca. You're just hoping to get someone to scream and jump up and down and do handsprings in apoplexy.

*yawns*

If they want 'em out, get 'em out. If they want 'em in, keep 'em in. Whatever anybody else wants is beside the point.

no but to me it makes no sense.. how do u argue someone is only a person after 6 months.. (because of brain developement) but then consider someone classified as a vegtibable.. or a mentally disabled child still a person.. if its brain development and capacity.. that means there are humans on this planet.. who shouldn't be though of as persons..

and to the black forrest.. it is a sad story.. and asking if it was a life worth living is a good question but.. just the thought.. wasn't it worth the try.. if the child had lived 2 weeks of drugs and the economic impact would have been nothing in the grand sceme.

A person is an entity which is self-aware. Thus anything that can menaingfully conceive propositions of the kind "I x" is a person.

That's my own take but I don't think any other definition of person actually grasps the metaphysical nature of the concept.

no but to me it makes no sense.. how do u argue someone is only a person after 6 months.. (because of brain developement) but then consider someone classified as a vegtibable.. or a mentally disabled child still a person.. if its brain development and capacity.. that means there are humans on this planet.. who shouldn't be though of as persons.. Not everybody does believe that severely intellectually impaired people have a right to life. See for example the work of Peter Singer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Singer). I'm not saying that I agree with everything that Singer says, but his work does attempt to answer the questions that you've asked in this thread.



Even when they are born, it appears they think they are apart of their mother. Then at a certain age they realise they are a seperate person.

I think Dr. Spock talked about this. If somebody knows otherwise, feel free to correct. I've never read Dr. Spock, but I think that it was Jacques Lacan who originally came up with that theory.