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--- utsfl:classroom:seminars:pba105h [2017/06/05 15:59] – mmccann
+++ utsfl:classroom:seminars:pba105h [2017/06/08 12:35] (current) – mmccann
@@ Line 9: / Line 9: @@
   * Abortion as age-based discrimination, a human rights violation
-FIXME content from [[trtl:education:team:presentations:abortion|TRTL Abortion Presentation]] - polish + condense
-===== Personhood =====
-==== SLED ====
-<note>**Objective [24:00-29:00]:** //Use the concept of SLED to show that differences between pre-born and born humans are not morally relevant, continue before/after birth, and are all a function of age.//</note>
-  * Some people may agree with you that, scientifically, pre-born children are [[utsfl:classroom:seminars:pba100y|human beings]] like you and I. However, many abortion supporters will still argue that the pre-born are not equal to born human beings--that is, that they are not //persons//.  They claim that since the pre-born cannot think or behave like those who are born, abortion is acceptable because it merely kills non-persons. These individuals will point out that the pre-born differ so much from the born.
-    * How? What are some of the ways that pre-born humans differ from born humans?
-    * All of these differences break down into four basic categories, into the acronym SLED:
-        * **Size**
-        * **Level of Development**
-        * **Environment**
-        * **Degree of Dependency**
-    * Let's ask two things:
-      - Do these differences only exist before birth, or do they continue //after// birth too?"
-      - Do any of these differences determine whether or not we should get basic human rights, like the right to life?
-Let's examine the categories:
-  * **Size:**
-      * An embryo is far smaller than an infant, but similarly, an infant is far smaller than a teenager.
-      * And, does how big you are determine whether or not you have basic human rights? Bigger humans don't have more of a right to life than smaller humans.
-  * **Level of Development:**
-    * Embryos and fetuses are undoubtedly less developed than newborn babies. But aren't newborns also less developed than toddlers, and toddlers less developed than teenagers? And aren't some adult humans less cognitively or physically developed because of factors like disability?
-    * And why should our level of development matter when it comes to whether or not we get human rights?
-    * FIXME Link here to [[utsfl:classroom:seminars:pba205h|functionalism]]?
-  * **Environment:**
-    * Some justify abortion because a pre-born child is inside the mother's womb, while an infant is outside her mother's womb.
-    * Your environment changes when you're born, but it changes constantly throughout your life.
-      * And //where// you are does not determine //who// or //what// you are.
-        * Consider, for example, 2 children, both 30 weeks old, but one is still living in her mother's womb and the other is born prematurely and is living in an incubator. Are they not both equally human? Why should one have basic human rights, but not the other?
-  * **Degree of Dependency:**
-    * Abortion advocates will point out that, before viability, a pre-born child is entirely dependent on her mother's body in a way that an infant is not.
-      * But again, differences in dependency exist among born humans as well. A newborn is far more dependent than a teenager, and she might still be dependent on his mother's body to live (for example, with breastfeeding). We don't become independent until //well// after birth.
-      * Furthermore, do people who are more dependent have fewer basic rights? Actually, the more dependent someone is, the //greater// our responsibility towards them!"
-        * If a toddler is thirsty and asks her mother for a drink of water, is the mother obligated to get it for her? Yes, otherwise she would be guilty of parental neglect.
-        * But if that same girl at age 17 says, 'Mom, get me a glass of water,' she is not obligated to do so--her daughter can get the water herself!
-        * Clearly, the more dependent someone is, the //more// responsibility we have towards them.
-=== SLED = f(age) ===
- * We can also encourage abortion supporters to think carefully about //why// there are these differences between embryos and infants, between infants and teenagers. These differences are all actually a function of one's //age//.
-    * //Why// is a pre-born child smaller? What size should any member of our species be at that age?
-    * //Why// is a pre-born child still in her mother's womb? Where else is the natural place for any member of our species be at that age?
-    * //Why// is a pre-born child more dependent? How independent should any member of our species be at that age?
-    * //Why// is a pre-born child less developed? How developed should any member of our species be at that age?
-      * //Why// can a child not feel pain until about halfway through pregnancy?
-      * //Why// can't a child survive outside the womb until about halfway through pregnancy?
-        * Well, our medical technology is only so advanced -- it used to be later in pregnancy before a child could survive outside the womb, in the future maybe it will be earlier in pregnancy.
-        * But, given our medical technology, what else would we expect for a human being of that age?
-      * //Why// are brain waves measurable at six weeks? How developed should someone's brain be at that age? The human brain isn't fully developed until your mid-20s!
-      * //Why// does the human heart start beating three weeks after fertilization? When should any human being's heart start beating?
-**Transition:** These differences are all just //age differences// -- not differences that matter in terms of basic human rights, like the right to life. Clearly, to select age-related criteria for personhood is arbitrary and discriminatory. It pits older humans against younger ones.
-==== human + x ====
-<note>**Objective [29:00-33:00]:** //show that all human beings deserve human rights, but showing that any concept of personhood that excludes some human beings is the very formula for a grave injustice//</note>
-  * Some may still argue that a pre-born child, despite being a human being, is simply not a person. But when we examine history, we see that //any// definition of a person that doesn't include //all// human beings is a grave violation of human rights.
-**Next step: human + x** While today the term personhood is often used to describe someone as "self-aware" or "rational," [[https://www.endthekilling.ca/training/classroom/humans/history|historically other criteria were used]]. Personhood has been defined using sex, skin colour, ethnicity and other arbitrary distinctions. Whenever we say that, to be a person, to have basic human rights, you have to be a 'human being plus x', that just being a human being isn't good enough, that's the formula for injustice, a formula for a grave human rights violation.
-  * We can see this throughout history, that every time we've said that to be a person, you need to be a "human + x", it's been a catastrophic moral mistake...
-  * **Next step: Virginia Supreme Court**
-      * "In the eyes of the law... the slave is not a person." –Virginia Supreme Court decision, 1858
-      * During the time of slavery in the US, to be a person, you had to be a human being plus white skin.
-  * **Next step: George Canfield**
-      * "An Indian is not a person within the meaning of the Constitution." –George Canfield, American Law Review, 1881
-      * "Here, a person was a human being plus non-indigenous"
-  * **Next step: racism** "We know this today as racism."
-      * Consider the story of Ota Benga, a Congolese man who was bought from slavers in 1904, taken to America and put on display in the Bronx Zoo in 1906.
-        * A sign on the exhibit read: The African Pigmy, "Ota Benga." Age, 23 years. Height, 4 feet 11 inches. Weight, 103 pounds. Brought from the Kasai River, Congo Free State, South Central Africa, by Dr. Samuel P. Verner. Exhibited each afternoon during September.
-        * The exhibit quickly became the zoo's most popular attraction, but protests from African-American clergymen had it shut down. We can think of Ota Benga whenever people say that a human being "doesn't look like a person". People thought that Ota Benga didn't look like a person, but how else is someone of his ethnic background supposed to look?
-          * People say that a pre-born child "doesn't look like a person," but how else is someone of that age supposed to look?
-    * But it doesn't stop with racism.
-  * **Next step: British Voting Rights case**
-      * Women in countries such as Britain used to be denied personhood status:
-      * "The statutory word ‘person’ did not in these circumstances include women." –British Voting Rights case, 1909
-      * "To be a person, you had to be a human being plus a man. We know this today as sexism.
-  * **Next step: Nazi Germany**
-      * If we look more recently in history, we can see the denial of personhood used to justify genocide.
-      * "The Reichsgericht itself refused to recognize Jews... as ‘persons’ in the legal sense." –German Supreme Court decision, 1936
-      * To be a person in Nazi Germany, you had to be a human being plus non-Jew.
-      * We know this today as anti-Semitism.
-  * **Next step: Canadian Supreme Court**
-      * And yet, our own Supreme Court says the following:
-      * "The law of Canada does not recognize the unborn child as a legal person possessing rights." –Canadian Supreme Court, Winnipeg Child and Family Services Case, 1997
-      * To be a person in Canada, you have to be a human being //plus a certain age//
-      * This is //ageism//, age-based discrimination. :!:
-    * **Next step: human being + x = human rights violation**
-    * //Whenever// we see this pattern, that to be a person you need to be a 'human being + x', it's the //pattern of a grave human rights violation//. With abortion, it's "human + a certain age" -- it's just //[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcYZCimYGUw|age-based discrimination]]//, or //ageism//.
 -- The history of legal personhood is "A nice little narrative of oppression, discrimination, and even genocide" - [[https://www.endthekilling.ca/blog/2015/12/11/something-we-can-agree-personhood-not-issue|Justina Van Manen]]