From: dgp@venus.wustl.edu (Don Porter)
Subject: Re: THE IMPLICATIONS OF ABORTION ON OUR SOCIETY
Organization: Washington University, St. Louis Mo.
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1992 03:46:32 GMT

<1992Apr08.202129.31264@watson.ibm.com> margoli@watson.ibm.com writes:
>Third trimester abortions are already restricted by (US) law;...

Not quite true.  I know of know federal law which restricts private
abortions in the third trimester.  Many states have state laws to 
that effect.  Many others don't bother, since no third trimester
abortion occur within their borders anyway.  IMHO, that's how it
ought to be.  Federal laws are not appropriate.

>The following, originally posted by R. Cage, is from:
>"Documentary challenges claim of fetal pain", in the
>Ann Arbor News, 31 August 1985:
>
>     "Does the brain even exist at conception?" narrator
>     Jaworski asks early in the broadcast.
>
>     "NO!!!" shoots back Dr. Michael Bennett, chairman
>     of the neuroscience department at New York's Albert
>     Einstein School of Medicine.

Good so far.

>     "Can there be a person without a brain?" Jaworski inquires.

Note that this question invites a neuroscience expert to wander
into areas outside his field of expertise.  I would not expect
a neuroscience specialist to necessarily have any greater grasp
of the philosophical notions of personhood than, say, an
electrician.

>     "No, no way," replies Bennett.  "You can't be a person
>     without a brain, you can't be a dog without a brain,
>     you can't be a cat without a brain or a chicken without
>     a brain."...

This is not a fact of neuroscience.  It is a philosophical
claim.  It rests on philosophical assumptions which are
not made explicit.  Yet it is presented as just another
fact from an "expert" that we are just supposed to accept.

Dr. Bennett should make his assumptions clear, and should
disclaim that they are not founded on neuroscience alone.

I think the appropriate label is TbBA.

>     But to a person, Jaworski's "impeccably credentialed"
>     scientists concurred that "there are no brain neurons
>     prior to four weeks of fetal development.  They contend
>     that the cerebral cortex, the portion of the brain
>     needed for thought, feelings and conscious awareness,
>     is the last part of the brain to fully develop."
>
>     In fact, asserts neurologist and neuroscientist Dr.
>     Dominick Purpura, former dean of the Stanford University
>     School of Medicine, and current dean at Albert Einstein
>     School of Medicine, before the 28th week of development
>     the cortex lacks sufficient axons, dendrites and synapses

All these are facts of neuroscience.  No problem.

>     to sustain the processes of thought, feeling and aware-
>     ness the documentary deems necessary for "personhood".

Oops.  I guess the documentary makers have put forth their
own requirements for "personhood."  Dr. Bennett may not be at fault
after all.

>     "We're putting the boundary condition, the limit, the
>     minimal time for personhood to begin," Purpura says.  "It's
>     not three months, it's not two months, it's seven months.

No.  They are putting the boundary condition, the limit, the
minimal time for certain brain processes to begin.  The relationship
of these brain processes to "personhood" is not a topic that
neuroscience can determine.

The caution to keep in mind is that scientists are not necessarily 
experts in philosophy or morals or ethics.  They can study problems,
gather information, and tell us many factual things about the world
around us.  This does not qualify them as ministers of wisdom.

|   Don Porter | dgp@saturn.wustl.edu | Washington University in St Louis   |
|  "The effect of liberty to individuals is, that they may do what they     |
|   please; we ought to see what it will please them to do, before we       |
|___risk congratulations." -- Edmund Burke._________________________________|
Newsgroups: talk.abortion