[Vision2020] Follow your own logic, Tony!

[nickgier at adelphia.net]

Dear Tony,

You say that you don't want to mess with the distinction between persons and human beings, but your own religious beliefs force you to do just that.  You believe that God is a person, right?  But if God is a person and human beings are persons, then personal identity cannot have anything to do with biology or genetics.

Higher mammals have unique genetic identities, so your agrument would require you to recognize them as persons, which I'm sure you do not want to do.

Finally, it is ill advised for a believers such as yourself to say that genetic identity is personal identity.  This a purely materialistic philosophy of the self.  You say that you believe in the soul, but souls, if they exists, would not be defined by biology or genetics.

So, Tony, you cannot avoid the distinction between persons and human beings, and you have to agree with me that there are persons who are not human beings.  Now, just take the next logical step and admit that there are human beings who are not persons--namely, the fetus before 25 weeks and brain dead humans such as Karen Ann Quinlan, Nancy Cruzan, and Terri Schaivo.

Thanks for the dialogue,

Nick