Reply #30: What is feeling the pain [View All]

[Az]

Pain is a result of sensations recieved by a brain. Feeling specifically is what happens when various nerves are affected by external stimuli and relay information to the brain. Some autonomic physical reactions may occur such as yanking a finger out of fire, but this is not a feeling recorded of felt by any individual unless there is a brain recieving these sensations.

Its still runs into the lump of flesh argument. There may well be nerves in the flesh but they are communicating with nothing. It like claiming that a surgeon is killing a person when they take out a kidney. Is a biopsy on a kidney murder? Of course not. It is not a human being.

As to potential. There is a difference between the idea of something that may one day potentially have a human mind and something that right now potentially has a human mind. This is the crux of the difference. A fully developed brain has the potential to have a mind in it right now. Thus we extend our protection to it. A cluster of cells does not have the potential to have a mind right now. Thus we do not extend our protection to it.