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From: foy@aero.ARPA (Richard Foy )
Newsgroups: net.abortion
Subject: Re: Some Doctors agree with Arndt, . . . Gosh!  But!
Message-ID: <378@aero.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 20-Aug-85 12:00:30 EDT
Article-I.D.: aero.378
Posted: Tue Aug 20 12:00:30 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 25-Aug-85 05:08:08 EDT
References: <3658@decwrl.UUCP>
Reply-To: foy@aero.UUCP (Richard Foy (Veh. Systems))
Organization: The Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, CA
Lines: 38
Summary: 

In article <3658@decwrl.UUCP> arndt@squirt.DEC writes:
>
>From a recent Church newspaper:
>
>"Sixty prominent physicians have recently declared that the 'biological
>facts' show that the unborn are living human beings.  The doctors, including

>Regards,
>
>Ken Arndt

The question of living human being or not is not a scientific question. The
type of questions that are scietific are: Is the fetus viable, what does it
look like, does it respond to stimulus etc. These are only loosely related
to the question of being human. Being human is a question of definition.
That is what aspects of a being are necessary and sufficient for one to call
it human. 

The definition of human has varied widely from time to time and from people 
to people as has been amply discussed on this net. 

One person has suggested the idea of two stages of being human. One that 
begins with conception and the other which perhaps starts around the time
of birth which is necessary for a being to be a human being. I think this
is a reasonable definition. There is also data to support the idea that 
something happens after conception that makes a step change in the nature 
of the being. People have been interviewed under hypnosis and have report
events which occurred around the 6th  month after conception which seem 
to support the idea that the soul enters the body at that time. 

This is the only data that I have seen which supports any stage of
development being necessary to be fully human. It is interesting to note
that the time pretty much corresponds with the Supreme Court decisions.

I reiterate however that I am a man and thus this is provided for information
only. I don't believe that men should have any say in the question of
abortion.