[Vision2020] A Frozen Embryo Responds to its Subpoena
Nick Gier
ngier at uidaho.edu
Sun Mar 20 12:10:39 PST 2005
Greetings:
Even though this post shows up in the archives, I did not get my own e-mail
copy of it. Did you guys? Even if you've seen this before, it gives me a
chance to correct a typo in the title. Except for Carl, I don't think most
of us pronounce the "b" in subpoena.
A FROZEN EMBRYO RESPONDS TO ITS SUBPOENA
WITH SUPPORT FOR MICHAEL SCHIAVO
By Nick Gier
Professor Emeritus of Philosophy
University of Idaho
To: Tom DeLay, U. S. House of Representatives
Thank you for your kind summons, but I am unable to attend for the
following reasons.
First, although I am biologically a human being, I am not a legal person under
English Common Law or any other law of which I am aware. In fact, if
thawed out, I might decide to become a twin, at which point my genetic
identity, which some people mistakenly believe makes me a person, makes me
two potential persons before the law rather than one. My twin and I would
have the same genetic identity but not the same moral and legal identity.
Second, if you would review your history, you would learn that our
moral, religious, and legal tradition holds that a person is a rational
being, which does not happen until late in my fetal development. In fact,
the ancient Jews and English jurist Sir Edward Coke believed that I am not
a person until I am born alive. The great Catholic theologian Thomas
Aquinas maintained that God does not make me a person until late in
pregnancy--"the completion of [my] coming into being."
Following Aquinas, Catholic philosopher Jaques Maritain states: "To admit
that the human fetus receives the intellectual soul from the moment of its
conception, when matter is in no way ready for it, sounds to me like a
philosophical absurdity. It is as absurd as to call a fertilized ovum a baby."
Protestants have joined Catholics in defining a person as one created in
the "image of God." Paul Jewett of conservative Fuller Theological Seminary
states that the image of God "defines . . . a person, an individual that is
free and self-conscious, and a rational, moral, and religious agent . . . .
" I wish I could claim such a valuable status, but I have to agree with
these fine theologians and wait for the proper time.
Excuse me for being so philosophical, but I also have to add another
important distinction. Starting at the third trimester, I would be a
fetus-child with a serious moral right to life, but have no duties. I
would not be an adult person with rights and duties, the sort that Jewett
describes, until I reach the age of majority.
I simply do not understand why the Supreme Court justices did not
use this solid tradition for their decision in 1973. Instead, they used
fetal viability as a standard, one which is gradually being pushed back by
technology and one which does not make a moral difference between viable
animal and human fetuses. A close reading of their footnotes reveals that
they knew about Coke, the Jews, and Aquinas, and they should have ruled on
that basis.
For me a rational being is one whose mental life is qualitatively
different from animal life, and even though this letter may indicate
otherwise, I have no mental life at all. Right at the end of the second
trimester of my future development (if I ever get thawed out!) my brain
will undergo a dramatic change. Brain cells that were once poorly
connected now have millions of new connections, and my neocortex,
undifferentiated at 25 weeks, will have its full six layers by 33
weeks. After this point I would continue my explosive brain development,
and, if I were born premature, this could be monitored externally by rapid
eye movement, which would indicate a very lively dream life.
Although they used the wrong arguments, the good justices came to
the correct conclusion: the state should intervene to protect my life
during the third trimester not before.
I wish to make clear that this definition of a person includes even most
humans of low mental capacity. But, if I make it to implantation, I just
hope that I am not like Baby Ashley of Boise, Idaho, who was born with only
a brain stem and incapable of supporting basic functions, let alone the
mental life of a human person.
This argument about the start of my life as a person should be used to
determine the end of a person's life as well. In the cases of Karen Ann
Quinlan and Nancy Cruzan the courts have been morally and legally correct:
humans who are brain dead are no longer persons.
Parents of Nancy Cruzan and the husband of Terri Schiavo were right about
the only decent way to honor their loved ones' dignity as former
persons. In both cases doctors and scientists were unanimous in their
opinion that persons no longer lived in those biological shells, and no
amount of sincere sentiment would make it otherwise.
Mr. DeLay, if you are really serious about protecting me as the
person I am not, you should then should pass a law that requires all frozen
embryos to be implanted forthwith in wombs that I suppose will be
commandeered by federal marshals. You will also have to fund an urgent
program that will prevent the spontaneous abortion of at least 60 percent
of my fellow embryos.
But relax, I am not a person, so you will not have to do anything as absurd
as this. At the same time, however, are not these the logical implications
of the "culture of life" that you so strongly affirm? And how about all
the animal life that is being slaughtered for meat every day?
I'm really flattered that you have given me such a high moral status, but I
cannot honestly accept such a premature promotion. Perhaps you if can
arrange for my release and a nice womb in which to be implanted, I could
honor you with my presence as a real live person.
Nick Gier, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, taught philosophy and religion
at the University of Idaho for 31 years. His full article on abortion can
be found at www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/103/abortion.htm.
"Modern physics has taught us that the nature of any system cannot be
discovered by dividing it into its component parts and studying each part
by itself. . . .We must keep our attention fixed on the whole and on the
interconnection between the parts. The same is true of our intellectual
life. It is impossible to make a clear cut between science, religion, and
art. The whole is never equal simply to the sum of its various parts."
--Max Planck
Nicholas F. Gier
Professor Emeritus, Department of Philosophy, University of Idaho
1037 Colt Rd., Moscow, ID 83843
http://users.adelphia.net/~nickgier/home.htm
208-882-9212/FAX 885-8950
President, Idaho Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO
http://users.adelphia.net/~nickgier/ift.htm
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