[extropy-chat] 22nd century

[Damien Broderick]

At 09:53 AM 10/13/2004 -0400, Natasha wrote:

>--- Trend Ologist <trendologist at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>
> > Second & third trimester unborn children (or fetuses)
> > are certainly quite important to Bush and other born
> > again christians,

Note the above qualification

> > however cells in a lab are a very
> > low priority for anyone but religious extremists. Does
> > anyone actually shed tears for tiny cells? That is
> > very hard to believe.
>
>Yes.  Having had an eutopic [ectopic?] pregnancy and fought for my own 
>life as well
>during this mishap, I will say that tears are indeed shed.

and Mike commented:

>I know people who have named miscarried fetuses and even had them
>buried with headstones, and they were not even what I'd call bible
>thumpers

Spontaneous abortion of foetuses more than several months developed can 
certainly be shattering, especially when a baby is desperately sought. But 
I think the point Trend and I were making is that it's extremely unlikely 
that this emotional attachment carries over to a clump of a hundred or so 
cells on a petri dish. The `miscarried fetuses' Mike mentions were surely 
not salvaged somehow within a week of conception and tearfully laid to rest 
with full ceremony? The only exception I can think of is the failure of an 
early implanted in vitro conceptus, where so much anxiety and uncomfortable 
preparation has been expended by the hopeful, hormone-drenched 
mother-to-be, and that's almost exactly a counter-instance because of its 
special and `unnaturally' induced physical prelude.

Damien Broderick