Could a zygote be a human being?
Bioethics 24 (2):61-70 (2010)
| Abstract | This paper re-examines the question of whether quirks of early human foetal development tell against the view (conceptionism) that we are human beings at conception. A zygote is capable of splitting to give rise to identical twins. Since the zygote cannot be identical with either human being it will become, it cannot already be a human being. Parallel concerns can be raised about chimeras in which two embryos fuse. I argue first that there are just two ways of dealing with cases of fission and fusion and both seem to be available to the conceptionist. One is the Replacement View according to which objects cease to exist when they fission or fuse. The other is the Multiple Occupancy View – both twins may be present already in the zygote and both persist in a chimera. So, is the conceptionist position tenable after all? I argue that it is not. A zygote gives rise not only to a human being but also to a placenta – it cannot already be both a human being and a placenta. Neither approach to fission and fusion can help the conceptionist with this problem. But worse is in store. Both fission and fusion can occur before and after the development of the inner cell mass of the blastocyst – the entity which becomes the embryo proper. The idea that we become human beings with the arrival of the inner cell mass leads to bizarre results however we choose to accommodate fission and fusion. | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,709 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesGregor Damschen, Alfonso Gómez-Lobo & Dieter Schönecker (2006). Sixteen Days? A Reply to B. Smith and B. Brogaard on the Beginning of Human Individuals. Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 31 (2):165 – 175.
Christopher Tollefsen (2009). No Problem. American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 83 (4):583-591.
Stephen Kearns (2012). Aborting the Zygote Argument. Philosophical Studies 160 (3):379-389.
Douglas E. Ehring (1999). Fission, Fusion, and the Parfit Revolution. Philosophical Studies 94 (3):329-32.
Stephan Blatti (2007). Animalism, Dicephalus, and Borderline Cases. Philosophical Psychology 20 (5):595-608.
Simon Langford & Murali Ramachandran (2012). The Products of Fission, Fusion, and Teletransportation: An Occasional Identity Theorist's Perspective. Australasian Journal of Philosophy 91 (1):105 - 117.
Thomas J. Bole (1989). Metaphysical Accounts of the Zygote as a Person and the Veto Power of Facts. Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 14 (6):647-653.
Robert C. Cefalo (1989). The Zygote: To Be or Not Be a Person. Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 14 (6).
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2009-01-28Total downloads60 ( #16,008 of 549,694 )Recent downloads (6 months)1 ( #63,425 of 549,694 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
