I always thought this was a pretty straightforward issue from a rationalist perspective—we have the technology to figure out whether the foetus has an active brain and can meaningfully perceive pain. That should be the cutoff point.
Maybe it’s straightforward to discover when the fetus can feel pain, but it’s not straightforward that being able to feel pain should be the cutoff point.
I always thought this was a pretty straightforward issue from a rationalist perspective—we have the technology to figure out whether the foetus has an active brain and can meaningfully perceive pain.
I see no reason to believe that you can in general kill a person because the person can’t perceive pain. Congenital insensitivity to pain is a thing.
I always thought this was a pretty straightforward issue from a rationalist perspective—we have the technology to figure out whether the foetus has an active brain and can meaningfully perceive pain. That should be the cutoff point.
Maybe it’s straightforward to discover when the fetus can feel pain, but it’s not straightforward that being able to feel pain should be the cutoff point.
I see no reason to believe that you can in general kill a person because the person can’t perceive pain. Congenital insensitivity to pain is a thing.
“Active brain” is also a term that wide open.