Yesterday evening, John posted as follows:
More objections to my saying that a fetus-embryo may not be “fully human.” People saying, “What is it? Part vegetable?” Come on, now. It is a seedling of a human being.
“A seedling of a human being?” John, you astonish me. You gave your own game away.
Even as a “seedling” of an oak is thoroughly and completely an oak—no such seedling will never ever go on to produce a pine, a maple, or a chestnut, but only an oak—so the “seedling” of a human being is thoroughly and completely a human being. Seed, seedling, sapling, tree: These are merely the names we use to denote a single organism at different phases of its development. Likewise embryo, fetus, baby, child, adolescent, and adult. Different phases or stages, but always human.
A matter of faith? No. A matter of straightforward observation. Come on, now.