comments
Respond
Comment on the article
Add a citation
Reply with an article
Start a new topic
Edit
Edit article
Delete article
Share
Invite
Link
Embed
Social media
Avatar
View
Graph
Explorer
Focus
Down
Load 1 level
Load 2 levels
Load 3 levels
Load 4 levels
Load all levels
All
Dagre
Focus
Down
Load 1 level
Load 2 levels
Load 3 levels
Load 4 level
Load all levels
All
Tree
SpaceTree
Focus
Expanding
Load 1 level
Load 2 levels
Load 3 levels
Down
All
Down
Radial
Focus
Expanding
Load 1 level
Load 2 levels
Load 3 levels
Down
All
Down
Box
Focus
Expanding
Down
Up
All
Down
Article ✓
Outline
Document
Down
All
Page
Canvas
Time
Timeline
Calendar
Updates
Subscribe to updates
Get updates
Past 24 hours
Past week
Past month
Past year
Pause updates
Contact us
The ability to feel pain
RELATED ARTICLES
Explain
⌅
Abortion
Abortion☜A map exploring the issues arising in the abortion debate.☜F1CEB7
⌃
Definition of Person
Definition of Person☜Central to the debate about abortion is the question of what defines a person. Often, the point of stasis in this debate involves the moment that a persons life begins and when their rights as such should be recognized by society.☜FFB597
⌃
A mind defines a person
A mind defines a person☜It is a mind (or perhaps a mind with certain properties) that defines a person.☜59C6EF
■
The ability to feel pain
The ability to feel pain☜☜9FDEF6
↳
Avoiding suffering is a central human issue.
Avoiding suffering is a central human issue.☜Humans are driven not only to avoid suffering, but to avoid inflicting suffering. It is a major theme in our culture (those who wantonly inflict suffering are evil). Whether a fetus can be the recipient of suffering would greatly sway our behavior.☜98CE71
↳
Someone unable to feel pain may still be alive
Someone unable to feel pain may still be alive☜If someone is unable to feel pain, but has other feelings or thoughts, we would consider them to be alive. ☜EF597B
□
A person is defined by thoughts and feelings
A person is defined by thoughts and feelings☜A mind defines a person, and a mind is a stream of thoughts and feelings. A persons life therefore begins with the initial onset of thoughts and feelings, and ends with their final cessation.☜9FDEF6
□
Self awareness
Self awareness☜☜9FDEF6
□
Supporting examples
Supporting examples☜Conjoint or Siamese twins are considered 2 people, despite sharing 1 body, because there are 2 minds.A life is considered to end when someone is brain-dead, regardless of whether their body is still alive, whereas the loss of limbs, etc. does not change the essence of a person.☜98CE71
□
Mind is not a requirement for personhood
Mind is not a requirement for personhood☜U.S. courts have already held that children born with anencephalia are human beings / persons and are worthy of the equal protections of our laws. Despite the fact that they are born with only a brain stem and no cerebral cortex and despite the fact that they have no capacity for thoughts, feelings or self awareness. Also, recent fetal homicide laws which make it a crime of murder to kill a child in the womb during a criminal act do not require the victim to be able to think or feel pain. ☜EF597B
□
Undermines the humanity of the mental disabled
Undermines the humanity of the mental disabled☜☜EF597B
□
The exact point is uncertain
The exact point is uncertain☜The time restrictions on abortion have been changed before, when it was discovered that feeling developed earlier than previously thought.☜EF597B
□
No single threshold for thought exists except at the very limits
No single threshold for thought exists except at the very limits☜Thought is a massively parallel distributed brain activity, not a single stream of consciousness, therefore no clear threshold for the onset and cessation of thought can be defined except at the very limits.☜EF597B
□
Graph of this discussion
Graph of this discussion☜Click this to see the whole debate, excluding comments, in graphical form☜dcdcdc
Enter the title of your article
Enter a short (max 500 characters) summation of your article
Click the button to enter task scheduling information
Open
Enter the main body of your article
Prefer more work space? Try the
big editor
Enter task details
Message text
Select assignee(s)
Due date (click calendar)
RadDatePicker
RadDatePicker
Open the calendar popup.
Calendar
Title and navigation
Title and navigation
<<
<
November 2024
>
<<
November 2024
S
M
T
W
T
F
S
44
27
28
29
30
31
1
2
45
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
46
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
47
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
48
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
49
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Reminder
No reminder
1 day before due
2 days before due
3 days before due
1 week before due
Ready to post
Copy to text
Enter
Cancel
Task assignment(s) have been emailed and cannot now be altered
Lock
Cancel
Save
Comment graphing options
Choose comments:
Comment only
Whole thread
All comments
Choose location:
To a new map
To this map
New map options
Select map ontology
Options
Standard (default) ontology
College debate ontology
Hypothesis ontology
Influence diagram ontology
Story ontology
Graph to private map
Cancel
Proceed
+Comments (
0
)
- Comments
Add a comment
Newest first
Oldest first
Show threads
+Citations (
0
)
- Citations
Add new citation
List by:
Citerank
Map
+About
- About
Entered by:-
David Price
NodeID:
#1241
Node type:
Component
Entry date (GMT):
9/27/2006 9:15:00 AM
Last edit date (GMT):
2/27/2010 10:32:00 AM
Show other editors
Incoming cross-relations:
0
Outgoing cross-relations:
0
Average rating:
4
by
3
users
Enter comment
Select article text to quote
Cancel
Enter
welcome text
First name
Last name
Email
Skip
Join
x
Select file to upload