Sentience

[Preechr]

Yes, Yes... All of that is just silly.

...whatever.

So human is valuable and human is you, and you'll be gracious enough to accept some minor differences in the rest of us then, right? It's funny to watch you deride things you don't already know to be fact. I hope that serves you well in Life, as that's probably not an attribute of being you that's restricted only to your dealings on the internet.

Maybe you just didn't understand my point, or maybe I should take responsibility for not expressing it well enough. How bout this: Human life is of utmost important to humans. We think we're special, and we see Sentience and Self-Aware as reasons why.

It would seem that you guys are confusing these things with individuality, but I'll admit that it's been a long time since I've read a textbook of any sort. I'm pretty sure lower forms of life can make a distinction between themselves and other things.

To have such a hard time defining what is human seems to be indicative of having one's head a bit too far up one's ass, it seems to me. I know this isn't the abortion thread itself, but since this discussion started there, I guess I'll draw the line back to it...

A fertilized human egg is human because it has the potential to be just as human as either of you. That may not be as convenient for you to believe as it doesn't give you the opportunity to split these hairs, but your arguments always seem to include as less than human everything from the earliest point to a child of 5 or 6 years old. You ignore that fact as yet another convenience.

Do you place such a high value on Sentience and Self-Aware because you believe a human is not human until it's useful or complimentary to you? It would seem so. Maybe we should evaluate just what is so damn important in the big picture about a human, Sentient and Self-Aware or not, as compared to anything else.

Are you following me now, or do you need further explanation of my essentially basic viewpoint?