Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Can fetuses really be thought of as human?


After reading Marquis' essay about fetuses have a future like ours I began to think about whether they could even be considered human yet. Sure, they have the DNA, but there are a few other defining characteristics that I don't think they meet.

Propositions:

A. Fetuses have never seen the world that people live in, or had any experiences in it ( which is a huge part of what it means to be human, in my opinion ) All they 'know' is the inside of the womb, a world that would be very alien like to a person who has been alive long enough to know the true human experience.

B. Fetuses lack the capacity for thought, and limited sensory perception. The senses are still developing while a fetus is in the womb. Touch is the first to develop after 5 weeks of pregnancy, but remains limited, with slow but steady development until 12 weeks. This means that for the first 5 weeks, fetuses literally cannot feel, think, or do anything that makes someone human, really.

 Given these ideas I don't think it's right to think of a fetus as a fully fledged human being, but I am interested to have a conversation about this. Comments plz? ^.^

1 comment:

  1. I am not sure that I can provide much of a conversation about this. I agree, mostly with the second proposition. The first one is rather unimportant to even an argument against abortion.

    Also, you should shut off word verification.

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