PHLB09H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Zygote, Sentience, Consequentialism
Document Summary
It is permissible to destroy embryos for research purposes. To make such a decision, one must consider the criterion for moral standing determine which beings count morally. An account of moral standing is a required feature for all ethical frameworks. It is misleading bc the embryo does not have rational nature; rather it has genetic coding that may lead it to develop into a being with rational nature (under favorable circumstances). A common pro-stem cell argument: human embryos have no moral status bc by analyzing their characteristics, they are not persons and so its not wrong to kill them standard liberal argument . Life of humans are intrinsically valuable at all stages, so killing and destroying a human is wrong. In this view, it suggests that destroying an embryo is just as bad as destroying adults. This view rules out all cases of abortion and esp in cases of rape; would stop all ivf processes for supplementary embryos.
