Date: Sat, 24 Jan 1998 17:29:55 +0000 From: James Heartfield <James-AT-heartfield.demon.co.uk> Subject: Re: M-TH: Britain's abortion row In message <Pine.3.07.9801230018.A15432-c100000-AT-login>, Justin Schwartz <jschwart-AT-freenet.columbus.oh.us> writes > >James ends up in the position, more or less, of the philosopher Michael >Tooley, who argued that it's the possibility of having an interest in the >future that makes one a person--this is a bit different from having social >relations, James' theory, but it comes out in the same place. That place >is that one is not a person until sometime _after_ birth, probably four to >six months. Infanticide of small babies is therefore not murder in the >moral sense, although it is in the legal sense. That's not my view. >Second, James says the definition of persionhood is easy. It's not. His >sketch is promising, but necessarily contested. Questions like this never >get settled answers or even answers to which most people agree, and the >more you think about it, the less agreement there is. Straight-forward and uncontested are not the same thing. But let's agree to differ. All the best -- James Heartfield --- from list marxism-thaxis-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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