News from Agape Press
Under this theory, Smith explains, "being human is irrelevant to moral worth. What matters is whether you have sufficient cognitive capacity to be deemed worthy of things such as life and bodily integrity; and if you do, for example, by being self aware over time, you are called a person." So, while the words "person" and "human" were at one time considered synonyms, he observes, "increasingly in the universities and among the elite, that is no longer true."
The author of this statement is dead-on. With the scientifc community defining life in such ways, deliniating between embryonic, implanted embryonic, delivered birth, and finally self-awareness we open up ourselves for any atrocity including euthenasia, abortion, infant stem cell research, and the like. This is the core of my issue with the recently released CTCR document. Defining life as being distinct separate stages of development finally ending with self-awareness is flawed.
My baby is not due for another 2 months and yet I can tickle its feet within the womb. It reacts to my voice. These are not the reactions of a "non-aware" life as the "personhood" theorists would call it.
