Quote:
|
Originally Posted by horn
well they probably won't be able to write a concise antithesis to your point when you put this point to them, but surely there are lesser levels of comprehension, forinstance the kind of comprehension a chav might offer.
|
The difference is reflection. An animal can sense pain in a manner quite similar to us I'm sure, but there does not seem to be any evidence they can reflect on this pain in the same way that any human being can (who isn't brain dead or whatnot). It seems likely that we only have this ability to reflect because of the relatively rapid (in evolutionary terms) brain growth which accompanied our switch to a meat centred diet -which also was probably the same period for language development and drastically increased abilities in abstract reasoning and the like. Given that these processes all developed at roughly the same time it's quite probable they are linked (historically in terms of development and cognitively in terms of function).
Talking about testing on human retards is misleading because even if we had vast number of heavily brain damaged people sitting about to pour acid on (whose bodies were otherwise healthy through some miracle) we would find considerable difficulties when dealing with the living relatives of these people. The reason we treat the dead with respect is (partially) because we don't want to piss off their grieving relatives who are likely to sue us or beat us up.
As for growing human beings who cannot think or who have tailor made cognitive capacities and healthy bodies, I am not aware we have these capacities in a reliable fashion and if we're fantasising why don't we just develop warp drives so we can get these cures from the Vulcans ahead of schedule?
Even if we could grow human bodies in such a fashion it sounds like a rather expensive endeavour even for people with as deep pockets as our beloved drug companies.
[quote]
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by horn
p.s would you torture dogs and chimps if it made a tastey drink at the end of it? i mean torture like stabbing in the eye, acid baths, burning alive, beating, decapitating etc. AFTER ALL THEY HAVE NO SOUL LOL
|
No I wouldn't for the same reason I don't squeeze oranges to make orange juice; I am lazy and there is easier ways of getting a drink. Like MrL I wouldn't mind others doing it though.