----- Original Message ----- From: "Gordon Fitch" <gcf at panix.com> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Thursday, March 14, 2002 7:15 PM Subject: Re: Vegans kill animals too
> "Gordon Fitch" <gcf at panix.com>:
> > The Silly People could argue, on the basis of nervous
> > > organization, that most fetuses were not sentient and
therefore
> > > not persons, most of the time.
>
> Ian Murray:
> > "Cell proliferation and rearrangement results in the formation
of
> > the brain and other organs. Initially, the embryo is a disc
> > composed of three germinal layers, ectoderm, mesoderm and
> > endoderm. The neural plate appears at 16 days and invaginates,
> > forming the neural groove. The neural folds fuse, forming the
> > neural tube. The posterior neuropore closes at 27 days."
> > <
> >
http://www.akronchildrens.org/neuropathology/DevelNeurobiolM1.html
> > #organogenesis >
> >
> > So if neuronal activity is a necessary condition for the
> > possibility of sentience and a currently necessary pathway to
> > personhood, the Silly people are even sillier than we
thought...
>
> The mere existence of neural tissue does not seem generally
> thought to guarantee sentience. Some of the literature (on
> both abortion and the interests of non-human animals) goes
> into this in considerable detail -- I think you could probably
> find something in Peter Singer's work if you really cared
> about it. But if you cared about it, I suppose you would
> have already. I perceive the rhetorical ground to have been
> much gone over and well-scorched, so I hope you'll forgive
> me if I don't pursue it further.
>
> -- Gordon
================== No prob. It is a worn out debate for sure. Neurons are damn mysterious when it comes to the sentience-experience spectrum, that's all. I don't think neurons are necessary for sentience.
Ian MCAT survivor