Once personhood begins, terminating a baby is a form of murder. Most believe that it can only be justified if it will save the life of the mother, to prevent permanent disability, to prevent serious injury or if the mother conceived because of rape.
What science can’t tell us are:
- Does the foetus have a soul?
- At what point of pregnancy does the baby gain a full set of human rights?
- At what point of pregnancy does the baby become a person?
- Is an ovum and sperm a person?
- Is abortion murder?
These are questions that are philosophical, religious or political. Science cannot help that much in resolving these arguments. And because these arguments are mainly religion based there is a wide difference of beliefs amongst people in different religions.
Some pro-lifers believe that human life starts when a soul becomes present, but the concept of a soul is a religious one. A soul cannot be located, weighed, smelt, seen, felt, measured or detected by any known instrument. It is all well and good saying that when you get a soul you are human but if they cannot detect when the soul becomes present they can not say with real honesty and truth when someone becomes human.
Other pro-lifers say that shortly after conception a DNA code is formed that will remain unchanged through out that human’s life. They say that as soon as a foetus has an unchangeable DNA then it becomes human. But a strand of hair or a scraping of skin has the same DNA inside it but it can defiantly not be called a human.
Some pro-choicers that personhood does not happen at conception. They say that the just fertilized egg has no limbs, no head, no brain no ability to see or hear, taste, touch, smell, no internal organs, no ability to think, reason, sense it’s environment, etc. even at one month it can not be distinguished from the embryo of a cat or dog.
Aristotle (384-322 BC) wrote in one of his biological treaties that a male soul develops after about 40 days and a female at 90 days. The Christian church because of this believes that an abortion can take place up to 90 days after conception.
Last but not least some pro-choicers believe that a baby is only considered human when it is delivered and breathing on it’s own and they have Biblical proof. In Genesis 2:7 it says that Adams body was formed from the dust of the ground, but it was only after God “breathed the breath of life” that “man became a living person.
Dictionary Definition- biology an organism or cell, or a group of organisms or cells, produced asexually from one ancestor to which they are genetically identical.
Who was Dolly the Sheep?
“Dolly” the sheep was cloned by transferring the nucleus of a body cell into an egg, which already had its nucleus removed. This is known as nucleus transfer. It is likely that the cloning of a human will be done with this method. Dolly was the very first successfully cloned mammal. Scottish scientists at the University of Edinburgh cloned Dolly in 1996. it took 272 attempts to create Dolly.
Why Clone Humans?
A supply of donor organs, eradicating genetic diseases and allowing infertile couples to reproduce are some of the main reasons. Then there are more bizarre reasons for cloning, including cloning dead people and seeking eternal life by cloning.
Why Ban Human Cloning?
Most normal scientists are against attempts at reproductive human cloning. The most convincing argument is that the risks are so great at the moment. It is feared that human cloning would be cruel, because it may result in many miscarriages and deformities before a human would be successfully cloned. You can’t just try and clone a person, find out that it has a disability and start again. That small baby has rights and must live out a life knowing that it was cloned and has got a disease. If you must clone a human 272 times before a success that is 272 babies that have something wrong with them because they are clones. It is very cruel and unless it has a very high percentage of success, must not be attempted. Cloning people for the sole propose of organs is a really bad idea because it opens an argument of “disposable people”. This is making people only to use them and kill them. Cloned humans are human beings and therefore must have civil rights. Meaning that you can’t kill them without a real reason.
Some people think that they’re a certain situations where killing is justified e.g. in self-defence or capital punishment.
Murder- n. the unlawful killing of one person by another.
Capital Punishment
In some countries if a criminal has committed a very dreadful murder or is a serial killer they may go to court and there it is decided that their punishment is death, then it is known as capital punishment. Capital punishment is always decided with a trial and the judge and jurors feel they have a justified reason to kill another person. Some people think that capital punishment in it’s self is murder. Judges and juries are not infallible and therefore there is the possibly that an innocent person could be executed. In the future if capital punishment was found to be a crime, who would be blamed for killing the criminal. The people who condemned him to death or the doctor who gave him the lethal injection???? The only place in the (rich north) of the world that allows capital punishment is The United States of America.
Self Defence
Sometimes a police officer or member of the public kills someone because they feel that their own life is at risk, this is known as self-defence. They often have a good and justified reason for killing someone threatening them. If they don’t then it is often called manslaughter. In a court, they must decide whether it is justified self-defence or murder/manslaughter. This was highlighted in a recent court case where a man stabbed a burglar in his house 12 times in the back, claiming self-defence but he was convicted of murder.
War
War- a state of armed combat between different nations or states (and in the future planets).
Pacifism- the belief that disputes should be solved by peaceful means and that war and violence are unjustifiable.
Some people feel that killing in a war is justified because the only way to solve conflict is to kill the opposition. On the other hand pacifists and religious groups feel that killing another human is never justified and the only way to resolve conflict is through peaceful means such as negotiation.
Euthanasia
Euthanasia- the painless killing of a patient suffering from an incurable disease or an irreversible coma.
People with terminal diseases feel it is their right to die with dignity, when they choose. Often they want to die before they become a burden on their families because of their illness. If the patient is in a coma or being kept alive by a machine and is unlikely to recover, the family feel that euthanasia is the best solution for the patient. Others may feel that god is the only person who can say when a person should die.
Conclusion
I think that the issues raised are so complex that it is extremely hard to say what a human is classified as and it shows us how fragile life is. It is only when you are faced with a life or death situation in your own life that you really know what you would think and do, maybe not even then would you know what to do.
Bibliography
ReligiousTolerance.org.uk
Guardianunlimited.co.uk
Concise Oxford English Dictionary
David Knight (human reference)
Mr. Martinez 20th September 2002-27th
