Thursday, January 18, 2007

Who You Calling Arbitrary? [Serge]

Sorry for the light blogging for a while. I've been enjoying my little daughter and helping with her siblings. New life is wonderful, amazing, and some of the best evidence of God's majesty.

Daniel stated in this comment that he although he sees that my view is internally consistent, it is arbitrary "from a gut perspective". I really can't argue against Daniel's gut, which is why a consistent argument using science and philosophy is so important. Although it may be arbitrary to his internal organs, he has not shown why it is arbitrary to our current understanding of science or philosophy.

I pointed out a concern with Daniel's "consciousness capable" human person argument for human value. His response simply shows that he is unable to apply his principles in a, excuse me, non-arbitrary way.

In the scenario you propose then, I would say that if it is neurologically possible that the child would at some given point regain consciousness, and if there is no other reason not to, he/she should be allowed to live. In the scenario you propose then, I would say that if it is neurologically possible that the child would at some given point regain consciousness, and if there is no other reason not to, he/she should be allowed to live. Head trauma always makes for difficult diagnosing (contrary to, for example, oxygen deprivation), and so I think it's better to err on the safe side. This is, however, different from euthanizing someone in anoxic PVS (e.g. Nancy Cruzan, Terri Schiavo)--since there is in the latter case no possibility for the recovery of consciousness. and so I think it's better to err on the safe side. This is, however, different from euthanizing someone in anoxic PVS (e.g. Nancy Cruzan, Terri Schiavo)--since there is in the latter case no possibility for the recovery of consciousness.
In other words, a newborn child with injured anatomy who may have a very small chance of developing consciousness should be allowed to live, but a human embryo with a perfectly normal anatomy and a very high likelihood of continuing its normal development should be killed. If you are not basing this on the present capacity for consciousness, what else is it based on? Let's not forget that we are talking about life and death decisions here.

As far as communitarian moral theory goes, our view is that every member of the human community should have moral value and thus should not be killed without justification. Yours is that a subset of human beings, those which do not the certain present capacities, are dismissed from the human family and can be killed without justification. Which view is arbitrary and discriminatory?

Lastly, you have repeatedly tried to use biology to support your views, especially with the conjoined twins scenario. A misinformed view of biology has an extremely detrimental effect on the ability to think clearly about these issues. So when you make statements like "Head trauma always makes for difficult diagnosing (contrary to, for example, oxygen deprivation)" you reveal your lack of knowledge in these areas. Anoxic brain injuries, especially in a newborn child, are not always easy to diagnose, and even more difficult to render an accurate prognosis for neurological recovery. Given a child with a suspected anoxic brain injury, and having all of our modern methods of diagnosis (MRI, CT, EEG), how will you determine their potential for recovery? I'd be interested to know.

Bottom Line: Scott and I have offered arguments that are the opposite of arbitrary. We have argued for basing intrinsic rights on an intrinsic property (being a human being), and have shown the difficulties of basing them on graded properties. I have shown how your mistaken biological description of conjoined twins does not support your view, and have shown the logical implication of your view, which you cannot apply consistently.

The supporting pillars of your argument seem to have taken some serious blows here. I'm interested to see the effect that this conversation has had on your conclusion.

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