Quote:
Originally Posted by CrusaderPi
I've got a few things to say in rebuttal.
1. A 6 month old baby can't make argument or comprehend a situation.
2. An in utero baby does think, in fact you can pick out pieces of their personality based on their actions inside the womb.
3. A baby in utero has a heart beat, breathes, eats, has brain activity, feels pain, hiccups, and responds to light. Most of these are happening as early as early as 6 weeks.
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It's clear that you didn't read the whole thread, so I'll summarize briefly. Point # 1 isn't really much of an argument. A dog can't do that either, yet most people think it's cruel to hurt dogs. The reason is that a dog very clearly has subjective experiences, can be afraid, can feel pain, can be content, be hungry, etc.
Point # 2. You're talking about "in utero" as though it were one thing. It's not. A zygote doesn't think. Actions inside the womb are actually
involuntary until around 15 weeks. Concluding things about "personality" based on actions in the womb is nonsense.
3. Actually, the only thing on that list that happens within 6 weeks is a heartbeat. The rest happen much later. Response to light doesn't happen until the 15th week. Also, a fetus is floating in amniotic fluid. It gets oxygen from the mother through the umbilical cord--ergo, it does not breathe. Hiccups start from the 13th-14th week, and are probably in preparation for learning to breathe.
As for brain activity--it's hard to characterize just what that means. A fruit fly has "brain activity." Until you have a developed nervous system, it's hard to imagine you have any thoughts at all. An embryo moves, but the motions are not connected to the brain--they're involuntary. It's not until well into the fetus stage that it starts to make voluntary motions.
This is a complicated issue--but it becomes that much more complicated when people spread misinformation.