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Originally Posted by AChimp
There's no question of whether or not it's alive, perse, because the cells are functioning like cells and reproducing, etc. You use plants as an example (I think it was you), and no one questions whether or not plants are alive.
I think I read somewhere that something is sentient when it becomes self-aware, so it's hard to define and more research would have to be done. I think that fetuses can be considered brain dead, except in reverse (going from nothing to something over time, rather than degrading).
Using specific functions of the brain is also hard to define. Motor ability is hardly a good judge of sentience, because animals can all move and we consider very few of them to be sentient beings. Random nerve impulses aren't a good measure, either, because at that stage, it could just as easily be the system jump-starting itself.
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So we have obviously determined that it is living. But we haven't found a determination for it being human yet correct? Now you have stated several ways to possible determine when it becomes human, but all of these ways are rather fishy at best. So the question lies how do we determine if it is human? The only way that seems apparent to me would be to utilize what every human has. DNA. But it is currently improbable to test the DNA of a fetus. Thus we must utilize the next best thing. The chromosome pair set. All normal humans have 46 pairs of chromosomes, thus it is logical to assume that if a defect hasn't been detected in the child during pregnancy the fetus has a 46 chromosome pair set. This would in essence make it human. And give it the rights of all humans.
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Originally Posted by AChimp
Yeah, but having many unwanted children would just cause tonnes of problems for those kids. Why should we have a glut of unappreciated, unwanted children in society just to prove that you should consider the consequences of rolling in the hay? Better education in schools is one solution, I think, and making contraceptives cheaper and more available.
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Of course education would be a better solution. But even with education you still maintain a sense of arrogance. And without something shattering that illusion of control, you are likely to only gain better educated pregnant teens.