Emphatically no. They are primarily potential lives, but they need their mother’s womb to achieve that potential, and they can’t all have that. Those simple brains have no more inherent moral worth than an insect with a similar number of neurons. Only one life can come out of this process. Whether that one is chosen by chance or choice, the one resulting life has the same moral worth.
The statement that they are potential lives is incorrect. An embryo is already alive and, since it has continuity through time with an adult human being (obviously actual living human), it has human identity as well. Therefore, it is a living human being.
“Only one life can come out of this process” is also incorrect. This is like having 4 teenagers and choosing 3 of them to be shot, and then concluding that “only one adult can come out of this process, therefore the 3 teenagers are merely potential lives and can be destroyed”.
Why would inherent moral worth depend on the number of neurons or complexity of the brain?
Emphatically no. They are primarily potential lives, but they need their mother’s womb to achieve that potential, and they can’t all have that. Those simple brains have no more inherent moral worth than an insect with a similar number of neurons. Only one life can come out of this process. Whether that one is chosen by chance or choice, the one resulting life has the same moral worth.
The statement that they are potential lives is incorrect. An embryo is already alive and, since it has continuity through time with an adult human being (obviously actual living human), it has human identity as well. Therefore, it is a living human being.
“Only one life can come out of this process” is also incorrect. This is like having 4 teenagers and choosing 3 of them to be shot, and then concluding that “only one adult can come out of this process, therefore the 3 teenagers are merely potential lives and can be destroyed”.
Why would inherent moral worth depend on the number of neurons or complexity of the brain?