Originally posted by Crow
Then is it OK to dismember a comatose human being? They are not capable of sentinence. They once were sentinent, but the past is the past. A corpse was once sentinent, and those are buried and burned routinely. So what would make us instinctively know that it is not OK to dismember a comatose human being?
The fact is that humanity and it's inherent right to live is not based on sentinence, and at some level most of us understand this, even if we do not acknowledge it.
What is not directly before our faces becomes more comfortable. We change the TV channel when there's a pitch for the starving famine kid of the week on. If the same kid knocked on our door, we'd drag him in and feed him.
I have yet to see the person who would think it is OK to hack the comatose to death, and yet by the sentinence standard, they are no more a "person" than a zygote. Because feti inhabit a hidden world out of our sight, we are able to dehumanize them and feel that they are somehow not entitled to live if their lives present an inconvenience. The comatose person is visible, and this is why we do not murder them. They are not tucked away from our sight; we are not comfortable in denying their humanity.
