and when does it begin and end? Before and after 'personhood', is there value? Is there life?
If I am un-conscious, am I a person? If I am numb, am I? Who decides?
I read some answers to a couple of earlier questions that really bothered me. I think it boils down to the question of 'personhood' and the value of life.
2007-03-27 08:34:59 · 6 answers · asked by super Bobo 6 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
a very alert 'acid_zebra' - I'm on the fence with the death penalty, but I find it somewhat justifiable, given the Ted Bundy's of the world.
2007-03-27 09:26:46 · update #1
That is a big question. First of all, there are three different aspects that makes you a person: mind, will, emotions. We are all born with minds, we all have emotions, and we all have a will - even the worst retarded person has these.
At a very very young age in the womb, a child begins to show signs of these three aspects of a person. A child will cry and laugh and suck on its thumb in the womb. I had the 'displeasure' of watching an abortion on videotape (the doctors video the precedure from inside the womb) ... the baby cried and jerked the entire time (but i am not trying to convince you to be prolife ... only answering he personhood question).
If you are unconscious or numb, you are still a person. Physical bodies do not make us people, it is what is inside. That is why we can say that God the Father and God the Spirit are indeed persons. They each have mind, will and emotions.
The value of life? I think that can be seen in the laws of God that insisted upon a death sentence (that sure sounds funny doesn't it).
When I was in Iraq, I taught my friends that to Kill an insurgent was not a sin. Why? Let's say that that insurgent killed three men and laid them on the side of the road (true ... I had to search a car that was only ten feet away). Then we say, "No ... let's not punish this man." What are we saying about the value of the lives of those three men? We are saying that they are worthless. By punishing those insurgents ... we are show the value of those they murdered. Life for Life. (But only in a governmental situation is this okay).
2007-03-27 08:48:52 · answer #1 · answered by justin singleton 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Not an easy or clear-cut question to answer.
There isn't a moment at which person-hood happens, it's a process.
Clearly a cell is NOT a person.
Clearly a five-year-old is.
Person-hood and sense of self emerge after birth, during the first few years.
It has to do with a conscious sense of one's own person-hood -- though being unconscious doesn't make you not a person, as it's a temporary state. If your brain dies, the body is no longer a person.
But killing me when I've been knocked out is killing a person, since my brain is still functional and I would wake up again.
Numb? Not clear to me that has anything to do with it.
Who decides? It's wrong for people who base their answer on their interpretation of their religion to decide for society as a whole.
If a given person believes that a single cell is fully a person, that person should act accordingly; but they don't have the right to impose their beliefs on everyone else.
2007-03-27 20:39:51 · answer #2 · answered by tehabwa 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Person-hood begins when egg and sperm meld and we are a single cell on the way to being born of flesh. God knew us in the womb, and even before that... but in terms of humanly speaking... at the single cell level. Which is why abortion is murder.
2007-03-27 15:40:02 · answer #3 · answered by Charity 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Personhood is defined by creator.
2007-03-27 15:38:24 · answer #4 · answered by King 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Once your brain isn't activated anymore, you're done, son.
That's it.
What is more amazing to me, is that I was the lucky one of millions of sperm cells.
2007-03-27 15:48:02 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
and yet you defend the death penalty?
2007-03-27 15:48:53 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋