I never said potential consciousness is as valuable as active consciousness, I said the ability to have consciousness is.Hastur wrote:Why is there a difference between a coma patient who might regain consciousness and a fetus who almost certainly will get it?
If potential consciousness is as valuable as active consciousness you can't be pro choice.
The fetus is different than a coma patient because it doesn't have the ability which comes with the basic structures, it merely has the potential to develop those structures, a potential consciousness, and worrying about potential consciousness isn't going to work because potential consciousness is all over the place. Every woman I haven't had unprotected sex with represents a potential consciousness that was denied existence.
We don't owe anything to persons that don't exist and will never exist, and if they're aborted before they exist, they'll never exist. Sounds callous, but in principle it's the same as denying all those future persons an existence by not devoting every waking second to procreation