Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to DNA and the fertilized egg.

Re Genetic Blueprints:
Yeti — (archived)

Lets accept you line of reasoning (which I don't) for the sake of argument. Millions (if not Billions) of 'genetically complete eggs' are 'aborted' from natural processes than from Human intervention. Where is your moral outrage over our failure to prevent these abortions and save these 'unique human lives'? Preventing natural abortion is an area of science where almost no money is spent. Yet clearly, by your 'beliefs', these are human lives that are dying every second of every minute of every hour of every day.

Lets assume that a 'complete genetic code' is sufficient and necessary for 'a human life' and all the moral and ethical judgments that adhere to 'a human life'. A clump of cells on a table fills that requiremnt. Is it a human life? A baby born without a brain, only a brain stem is a complete genetic 'human life'- should we keep it on a ventalator for 70 years? A human whose brain has been completely destroyed fits that bill as well- should we end organ transplantation and persist people in a vegetative state indefinately? A fertilized egg so badly deformed as to never have a chance to develop into a viable fetus is 'a human life' by your definition- yet those pregnancies end every day by natural or artificial means. Where is your passionate concern for these lives?

Clearly, the idea that life begins at conception is absolutely perposterous unless you add in some sort of notion of 'soul' or 'spirit'. If you do, then you admit you are thinking religiously and not rationally.

And about uniqueness: your emphasis on uniqueness is odd. Genetically identical twins are not genetically unique. Uniqueness in any complex system is not that special. Take a handfull of pocket change and throw it on your desk. Given the same coins and a series of tries that extend to the end of the universe, that arrangement on the desk of your coins is probably unique.

I would not want my child aborted in a perfect world, but thats my preference. Again: end of story. You go live by your decisions, I'll live by mine, and keep your opinions out of the courts and out of my life.

Yeti

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