That "human" thing (was Re: [extropy-chat] Bad Forecasts!)

[Max M]

Brett Paatsch wrote:

>I'm a stem cell campaigner. I learnt to recognize how important language
>can be when I heard Senator Brian Harradine of Tasmania trying to
>corral some of Australia's leading scientists into an admission that an
>embryo is a human being. Human because what other form of life would
>it be - its clearly alive, and "being" because it exists.
>

It's a pretty clever argument. But by that argument a fresh drop of 
blood, or piece of skin is also a human being.

regards Max M Rasmussen, Denmark