Guess Who’s NOT Stuck on the Enterprise

Posted by yourdadonapogos on 02 Mar 2008 | Tagged as: navy, work

I just checked my orders and I pretty much got the opposite of the Enterprise. My orders are to commission the CVN-77 George H.W. Bush. It is the newest Nimitz class carrier and the last carrier before the Ford class begins. You can check it out here.

Abortion

Posted by yourdadonapogos on 20 Feb 2008 | Tagged as: abortion, ethics, science

The debate about abortion is, in my opinion, usually about irrelevancies. The arguments are usually about whether or not the fetus is considered “alive” or “human.” Neither of these are really that relevant.

The first case is whether or not the fetus is alive. Of course it is alive. Two living cells combine to form a new cell containing genetic material from both parent cells. This cell divides and starts to develop into a multicellular organism. Where along the line did it die? Now, is the fact that the fetus is alive morally relevant? I say no. The grain of which your food was made was alive prior to being harvested. Is it morally wrong to kill the grain?

The second argument(whether or not it is a human) is also irrelevant. Species membership is not a morally relevant characteristic. The morally relevant characteristic is personhood. Is the fetus a person. Does it feel? Is it self aware? Does it have desires(more importantly, the desire to continue living)? Does it have the capacity to suffer? These things are what is important, not it’s genome.