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<div align="center"><font face="Times New Roman, Times"><b>Greetings:<br><br>
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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.<br><br>
<div align="center">A FROZEN EMBRYO RESPONDS TO ITS SUBPOENA<br>
WITH SUPPORT FOR MICHAEL SCHIAVO<br><br>
</b>By Nick Gier<br>
Professor Emeritus of Philosophy<br>
University of Idaho<br><br>
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<x-tab> </x-tab>To: Tom
DeLay, U. S. House of Representatives<br><br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>Thank you
for your kind summons, but I am unable to attend for the following
reasons. <br>
First, although I am biologically a human being, I am not a legal person
under <br>
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.<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>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.” <br>
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.”<br>
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. <br>
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.<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>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.<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>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.<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>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. <br>
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.<br>
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. <br>
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.<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>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. <br>
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?<br>
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. <br>
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
<a href="http://www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/103/abortion.htm" eudora="autourl">www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/103/abortion.htm</a>.<x-tab> </x-tab><br><br>
</font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=1>"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<br><br>
</font>Nicholas F. Gier<br>
Professor Emeritus, Department of Philosophy, University of Idaho<br>
1037 Colt Rd., Moscow, ID 83843<br>
<a href="http://users.adelphia.net/~nickgier/home.htm" eudora="autourl">http://users.adelphia.net/~nickgier/home.htm</a><br>
208-882-9212/FAX 885-8950<br>
President, Idaho Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO<br>
<a href="http://users.adelphia.net/~nickgier/ift.htm" eudora="autourl">http://users.adelphia.net/~nickgier/ift.htm</a><br><br>
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