more on this theme | more from this thinker
Full Idea
A week-old embryo without a brain may be a potential human being, but so are a sperm and an ovum that are about to meet in a dish, and it wouldn't be wicked to keep those apart.
Gist of Idea
It isn't obviously wicked to destroy a potential human being (e.g. an ununited egg and sperm)
Source
Michael Lockwood (When Does a Life Begin? [1985], p.19)
Book Ref
'Moral Dilemmas in Modern Medicine', ed/tr. Lockwood,Michael [OUP 1988], p.19
A Reaction
Sounds fine, but it may be a slippery slope. Is it acceptable to deny a place at music school to a potentially great musician?
4054 | I may exist before I become a person, just as I exist before I become an adult [Lockwood] |
4055 | It isn't obviously wicked to destroy a potential human being (e.g. an ununited egg and sperm) [Lockwood] |
4056 | If the soul is held to leave the body at brain-death, it should arrive at the time of brain-creation [Lockwood] |