Thursday, 03 January 2008

• Currently Reading The Ethical Brain: The Science of Our Moral Dilemmas (P.S.) By Michael S. Gazzaniga see related

  When Does a Human Being become a Human Being?

   

  

  Picture of a fertilized human egg

  Is this a human being?

  
  

  I'm beginning to read a book titled The Ethical Brain: The Science of Our Moral Dilemmas by Michael S. Gazzaniga and from the very opening chapter of his book, titled “Conferring Moral Status of an Embryo”, has really been thought-provoking and challenging for me for some reason, not just on an intellectual setting but also a spiritual one as well. Gazzaniga is the director of the SAGE center for the study of the Mind at UCSB and serves on the President's Council on Bioethics, and is a distinguished neuroscientist by profession.

  
  

  He opens up the chapter by asking if a human embryo should be considered a human being. Is an embryo or a fetus a person? For most religious minded people, the answer is yes. This is evident in many of their stances against abortion and stem cell research. For most Christians and people of other faiths such as Jews and Muslims generally would agree more or less that an embryo, no matter how early a stage it might be in, is a human being or at the very least has the potential of becoming a viable living human person.

  However, is it right to attribute the same moral status to a human embryo that one attributes to a newborn baby or to any human baby? The answer to this question has far reaching relevant implications in our day and age in issues such as abortion, in vitro fertilization, cloning, and stem cell research.

  
  

  By the end of 5^th week of a woman's pregnancy, the fetus begins to show signs of electrical brain activity. But this brain activity cannot be attributed as evidence of consciousness. At this point in the human fetus' development of its nervous system, it's no different than that of a shrimp's. By the 8^th week, you begin to see the suggestions of a human being. Until that stage, it's difficult to tell the difference b/w a pig embryo and a human embryo.

  By weeks 12 to 16 of the pregnancy, this is when the brain starts to rapidly develop within the fetus. By week 13 he fetus has begun to move. However, according to Gazzaniga, the fetus isn't a sentient, self-aware organism at this point; it's more like a sea slug.

  It is not until we get to week 23 that the fetus is able to survive outside the womb with medical support; it is also at this time that the fetus can be said to respond to pain.

  
  

  So in summary, the fertilized egg starts off as a clump of cells with no brain. The beginnings of the nervous system start to appear and develop around the fourteenth day, and no sustainable or complex nervous system is in place until approx. 6 months of gestation.

  
  

  The question is, when should a fetus be considered “one of us” and thereby be granted the moral and legal rights of a human being? In America, the Supreme Court has ruled that at 23 weeks, a fetus is protected from abortion.

  Yet still, some people will consider and argue that an embryo at the earliest stages is a human being. Can a developing clump of cells, no bigger than the size of a period on a page, really be considered a human being and harbor the image of God as most Christians assert? Does life begin at conception as the Catholic Church holds? Or does it really start bearing the image of a person or the image of God for that matter after 23 weeks of gestation within a woman's womb? Does an embryo at the moment of conception bear a spirit or a soul for that matter?

  
  

  The main argument from the religious side is one of potentiality of the developing embryo – that is, they hold onto the view that an embryo or fetus could become an adult, so therefore, as the argument goes, it must be granted equivalent moral status as ascribed to human beings.

  
  

  If I'm a scientist or a med student and I have a human embryo in a dish that I'm going to examine under a microscope, and I start cutting it up, am I guilty of murder or homicide? Have I killed a human being?

  
  

  Does human life begin at consciousness? But there lies a bigger question for scientists and philosophers alike: what is consciousness? It's surprising to note that despite all the groundbreaking research that has gone on in neuroscience in understanding the structure and mechanics of the human brain, we still don't have a real understanding of what exactly secures consciousness in an adult. Part of the problem lies in the fact that the human brain is the most complex structure in the universe, and studying it and trying to understand the depths of the human brain and mind is one of the most daunting and difficult fields imaginable.

  
  

  Like I mentioned previously, this raises some difficult theological issues and questions. Does an embryo, in the moment of conception, bear the image of God? Does it have a soul? Does it have a spirit?

  
  

  Some interesting Bible verses:

  Yet you brought me out of the womb;
         you made me trust in you
         even at my mother's breast.

   From birth I was cast upon you;
         from my mother's womb you have been my God.

  - Psalm 22: 9 – 10

  
  
  

  Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
         before you were born I set you apart;

  - Jeremiah 1: 5

  
  
  

  Well, from judging from a handful of Bible verses that relate to this topic and without going into extensive contextual and biblical exegesis (should it be understood literally or symbolically?), it seems as if a form of consciousness or state of awareness and life is going on within the womb and that somehow, God is personally involved in the formation of persons, particularly in the Jeremiah verse. These verses don't explicitly give details as to whether or not a fetus or embryo has a soul or spirit, but one may infer that that entity developing within a mother's womb is something of intrinsic value and worth.

  If an embryo or fetus before 23 weeks of gestation is aborted (artificially or naturally), does it's soul or spirit go to heaven or hell?

  If you're a Reformed or Calvinist Protestant, what does this say about predestination or election? Is the embryo predestined for salvation or not? Or are these terms meaningless and absurd in this situation?

  The soul is usually associated with the mind, so how can an embryo or fetus before 23 weeks of development be considered to have a soul or mind when it's nervous system, let alone its brain, hasn't even fully developed yet?

  
  
  

  The Bible does hint that a baby has a spirit and or soul and goes to be with the LORD after death in 2 Samuel 12: 23, where David responds to his servants after his first child with Bathsheba dies, when he says, “But now he has died; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.”

  But it also raises questions as to what David was talking about. Was he referring to heaven or to Sheol, the shadowy realm of the dead that Jews believed everyone went to after death? Or was he pointing to the future resurrection and glory that would be brought forth b/c of Christ's death and resurrection? Also, he's mentioning a baby and not a fetus or embryo. Of course, I'm also assuming that David had no clue as what a fetus or embryo was best to my knowledge.

  Hmmmmmmmmm....

  
  
  

  Does a human soul or spirit develop immediately upon conception and therefore should be deemed a human being, bearing the image of God, or does it “arise” naturally when consciousness develops after the brain is formed and starts functioning. Does the mind or soul arise when the brain has developed? If you have no brain there is no mind. Or is the mind of a different or metaphysical “substance” if you will that isn't dependent upon physical matter? If the soul, consciousness, or spirit is an indication of the breath of life from God animating a living thing, then should a fetus or embryo before 14 days or 23 weeks be considered a human?

  Gazzaniga argues that the mere possession of the genetic material for a future human being doesn't make a human being. A human being represents a whole other level of organization, as distinct from a simple embryo as an embryo is distinct from an egg and a sperm. It's the dynamics b/w genes and environment that make a human being. He makes it perfectly clear that all of human life begins with conception, but makes a distinction b/w when your life began and when life begins. A fourteen-day-old embryo created for research is not a human being and therefore shouldn't be granted the same moral status, so therefore the argument for stem cell research should be settled and be allowed.

  
  
  

  Just what makes a human being human? What does it mean to be created in the image of God? (Genesis 1: 26)

  This is merely scratching the surface of the issues and questions that are being raised and should be thought about.

  
  

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