Moral value is not granted on the basis of personal traits, but because you are a person. It is constant and granted exactly when a non-person-thing become a person.
Moral value is granted at the point when one becomes a person.
The difference between a person and a non-person is category, not simply quality or quantity.
The difference between a person and a non-person is category, not simply quality or quantity.
You see, if the difference is quantitative or qualitative then "being a person" seems to only mean "more of ...something else...". It would be justified to critique the idea that 99% personhood is not sufficient to require 1% or moral value. This brings me back to point 2 arguments.
If different persons get their value from being part of a category rather than having certain traits, then we could justly apply equal value to persons without being inconsistent.
Limiting the debate seems not to be a problem - we are far too good at getting of track XD
Category: a division within a system of classification [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/category]
A category in our context means that we can put all "persons" in one simple box (category) and have them all be similar in some fundamental way. However, if our division is unclear, vague or arbitrary it cannot be accepted. For example, I could say that "persons" can run faster than crabs - but that category would be stupid and not sufficient to grant moral value. So when trying to create a perfect box (category) on the basis of which we will grant moral value, it needs to fit these criteria:
- Include everything we agree are persons (like adults)
- Not include anything we agree is not persons (like elephants)
Moral value is granted at the point when one becomes a person. That point is a change in category, not simply a small change within current category.
Evidence regarding the capacity for fetal pain is limited but indicates that fetal perception of pain is unlikely before the third trimester. Little or no evidence addresses the effectiveness of direct fetal anesthetic or analgesic techniques. Similarly, limited or no data exist on the safety of such techniques for pregnant women in the context of abortion. Anesthetic techniques currently used during fetal surgery are not directly applicable to abortion procedures.
Last of all to mature is the cerebral cortex, which is responsible for most of what we think of as mental life–conscious experience, voluntary actions, thinking, remembering, and feeling. It has only begun to function around the time gestation comes to an end. Premature babies show very basic electrical activity in the primary sensory regions of the cerebral cortex–those areas that perceive touch, vision, and hearing–as well as in primary motor regions of the cerebral cortex. In the last trimester, fetuses are capable of simple forms of learning, like habituating (decreasing their startle response) to a repeated auditory stimulus, such as a loud clap just outside the mother’s abdomen. Late-term fetuses also seem to learn about the sensory qualities of the womb, since several studies have shown that newborn babies respond to familiar odors (such as their own amniotic fluid) and sounds (such as a maternal heartbeat or their own mother’s voice). In spite of these rather sophisticated abilities, babies enter the world with a still-primitive cerebral cortex, and it is the gradual maturation of this complex part of the brain that explains much of their emotional and cognitive maturation in the first few years of life.
IF something is capable of suffering, THEN it will have moral value
Because fusion IS a fundamental change - so regardless of whether or not another fundamental change happens afterwards we can know that sperm is not even a mammal.
You must admit that the only reason to dismiss this "fundamental change is a necessary" idea is that pro-choice has no sufficient alternative fundamental change.
If we accept the obvious fundamental change that is fusion -- then there is no uncertainty, and we can coherently and non-arbitrarily apply equal moral value to everyone.
