From: stank@perrault.unet.com (Stan Knight)
Subject: Re: Walking down to the student center last night
Organization: Network Equipment Technologies, Redwood City
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 22:20:27 GMT

In article <1992Oct2.193000.24614@ncsu.edu> dsh@odin.ece.ncsu.edu (Doug Holtsinger) writes:

>> This is no doubt true in the later stages of pregency.  But in the early 
>> stages this is completely impossible. Go talk to one of your biology 
>> teachers about the minimun mass of brain tissue needed for cognitive 
>> thought/awareness.  I'm sure there is brain wave activity very early 
>> on but this does not indicate awareness. 

>The evidence that I've seen suggests that the neocortex ("higher 
>brain") of a newborn infant is not sufficiently developed to possess
>cognitive thought.  It is only until several months after birth
>that the infant's brain matures to a point where cognitive thought    
>is possible.  Therefore, if you base your support for abortion rights 
>on the fetus's inability to "think", then you must also condone
>infanticide.  
 
We may a defination problem with cognitive. I associated it with awareness
which was the topic of discussion. If you think that a newborn can't think
or isn't aware of itself or its surrounding then you obviously haven't had
a baby of your own. A month or so before my son was born my wife could put an
object on her stomach(usually TV remote)and he could sense the pressure and
would kick/punch that spot. Move it and he would move with it. Take it away and
the kicking stopped. If this is not awareness of your surroundings then what
is? A baby is born with a fully formed brain but nothing else.
It's like haveing a Cray that can only access a blank database. Lots of
potential but nothing else. A baby has an advantage over the Cray in that
it has the ability to learn on its own. It's true that it may take a while
for a baby to learn about X action leads to Y results.(I cry--Mom comes)Any
parent can tell you that this one takes weeks instead of months for baby to 
learn.  But when you start with from 0 its amazeing it can happen at all. Back 
to the orginal topic of discussion, when a fetus becomes "aware" has been a 
discussion for a very long time. Most medical experts think it happens sometime
in the 2nd tri. This is why so many favor restrictions on late stage 
aborations.
>> Here's a free clue for you: A majority of Americans are pro-choice. 
>That depends on how you define "choice". 

Exactly which part of the word don't you understand?

>Roughly 70% of Americans support restrictions on abortion.

Which is what I said in the next sentence of my post which *you* deleted.

>Most Americans do not support unrestricted abortion-on-demand 

Which is what I said in the next sentence of my post which *you* deleted.

>as we have today with Roe v. Wade,

Back to your old tricks of trying to disguise lies as facts huh Dougie?

>nor do they support a ban on all abortions.  

You said that already!

Stan Knight
|You can sure learn alot about human development by having your own baby|
Newsgroups: alt.rush-limbaugh,alt.activism.d,alt.politics.elections,alt.politics.bush,alt.politics.clinton,talk.politics.misc,talk.abortion