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    The argument that human beings come into existence at con... — Carmelics
    Home/Bioethics
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    The argument that human beings come into existence at conception is undermined by the twinning case.

    Bioethics
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    2 reasons for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Twinning produces a new individual by division, but the original embryo persists as one of the resulting twins, just as an amoeba persists through fission.
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    • 2.Eric Olson's animalist framework holds that biological continuity, not numerical identity across branching, determines which organism persists.
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    • 3.The twin who inherits the majority of the original embryo's cellular matter retains the original organism's identity, grounding conception-based personhood.
      ?

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    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Patrick Lee and Robert George argue that twinning shows developmental plasticity, not the absence of a determinate individual prior to the split.
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    • 2.A human organism can be a fully determinate individual from conception even if it later undergoes division, just as a nation remains real before it partitions.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Twinning is a real-life instance of the argument from fission.
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    • 2.In twinning, the original embryo (Adam) cannot survive as both twins, as only one twin, or at all.
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    • 3.If Adam does not survive, new human beings come into existence at twinning, not at conception.
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    Topics

    BioethicsPersonal Identity

    Related

    A human organism can be a fully determinate individual from conception even if i...Eric Olson's animalist framework holds that biological continuity, not numerical...If Adam does not survive, new human beings come into existence at twinning, not ...In twinning, the original embryo (Adam) cannot survive as both twins, as only on...
    +5 moreShow less
    Patrick Lee and Robert George argue that twinning shows developmental plasticity...The twin who inherits the majority of the original embryo's cellular matter reta...This contradicts the claim that all human beings begin at conception.Twinning is a real-life instance of the argument from fission.Twinning produces a new individual by division, but the original embryo persists...

    Similar

    Therefore, some human beings come into existence at twinning rather th...90%If Adam does not survive, new human beings come into existence at twin...86%Barney and Claire come into existence at twinning, not at conception.80%This contradicts the claim that all human beings begin at conception.80%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: identity-ethics
    View source passageHide passage
    References to identity in this debate come from objectors to this argument, who apply the argument from fission to a real life version of it, namely, twinning. An embryo might split any time generally before the two-week point in fetal development, and those two embryos could develop into fully formed infant twins. The question for the advocate of the above argument to consider is, in such a case, what happens to the original human being, the embryo we will call Adam? There are only three possib
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (2 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit