| TITLE : Signatures for a Statement on the Embryo |
TEXT : Dear Dr Tonti-Filippini
Correct me if I am wrong but I believe you want a more explicit statement of
personhood from the moment of fertilisation. For example, this sentence in
the statement may be evocative of graduality in humanness rather than in
human shape - ~ Graduality is a property that 妬mplies and demands a
regulation that must be intrinsic to every single embryo・and allows it to
reach, gradually, its final form.~
Of some relevance is the following excerpt of a short letter I published in
the Singapore Medical Journal in Oct 2002 http://www.sma.org.sg in reply to
a review article on human cloning in the July 2002 issue of the journal -
~ It should be realised that the view of the UK committee in 1982-4 led by
the philosopher Dame Mary Warnock that a human person begins when the
primitive streak appears on the 14th day after fertilisation runs counter to
current scientific knowledge that right from day 1 a human is a totipotent
being systematically and seamlessly executing the instructions of his human
genome into adulthood.
Indeed, no self-fulfilling declaration that any human tissue or organ is
渡ot yet developed・can negate or excuse the destruction of the early
human痴 ongoing genetic program that is destined to develop it.
To surmount the irrationality of the Warnock stand, the term pre-embryo was
coined as a surrogate for pre-human, a fiction questioned by Jerome Lejeune
in 1989, ・.there is no such word. There is no need for a subclass of the
embryo to be called a preembryo, because there is nothing before the embryo
(3). ・~
Hope this helps.
Dr Ian Snodgrass
Dear Dr Gigli,
In relation to the statement on the embryo by several Italian doctors, I
have had some correspondence with several others.
I want to make clear that my concerns are not that the doctors are motivated
by and have attempted to express a statement other than respect from the
embryo from the beginning, though they are vague about what that beginning
is. Rather I am concerned that
a) the document through its vagueness and the novelty of its language is
open to a quite different interpretation of gradualness of moral status.
This is the view that is very strong in Western culture where moral status
of the embryo is conceded, but a kind of ascending status as more and more
functions and capacities become instantiated. Such a view is permissive of
abortion and embryo experimentation where the reasons are sufficiently
compelling to override a not yet completed status as a fully mature human
being.
b) there is factual error in relation to the interaction of the embryo with
his or her environment. This error tends to support a) in some minds.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. Nicholas Tonti-Filippini PhD
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