Originally posted by Sam
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The brain dead "patient" is still a human being. And his unplugging does require someone with the legal power of attorney to disconnect him. If he were just an object at that point, no permission would be required. They could just chop him up for parts without permission. And again, a brain dead person is someone who can't recover. So not like an embryo.
Stem cells can, in fact, grow into a human organism -- we've already done so with mice.
It has the same "potential toward personhood" as does a zygote.
If your distinction is "natural environment" then you concede that some external factor, not an inherent property, separates the potential between a zygote in utero from a zygote in a dish or, indeed, a stem cell. And, that being the case, means that the quality of personhood (or "being") is not found inherently in a zygote.
This is all complicated stuff and it's going to necessarily involve getting "nit-picky" with precise concepts and terms if one wants to have a good, rational argument. It's also why very few people bother with getting that far into the real debate.
--Sam
--Sam
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