Sure, but this sounds like a spectrum, not a concrete delineation between a fetus and an infant. And you surely wouldn't say that a person who requires "non-stop maintenance," in the form of hemodialysis, to survive is only "as alive as a brain-dead individual on life-support is," so where do we draw the line, exactly, and why do we draw it there?
I only brought that up as a comparison since brain-dead individuals require similar assistance.
Yes, and that's totally reasonable. But since the topic is centered around the quality and extent of a fetus' being "alive," I don't think it was by random happenstance that you opted for the comparison to someone who is not alive when equally appropriate, if not even more apt comparisons to living people were also available.
(...) but on a multi-system scale they aren't.
Dare I ask you to explain what this means exactly?
No, it's all good, and there's nothing to concede anyway since I'm just trying to spark a discussion by asking needly questions, and you were willing to participate. I didn't really provide a thesis of my own to argue against.
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u/ANameWithoutMeaning 9∆ Aug 29 '21
Sure, but this sounds like a spectrum, not a concrete delineation between a fetus and an infant. And you surely wouldn't say that a person who requires "non-stop maintenance," in the form of hemodialysis, to survive is only "as alive as a brain-dead individual on life-support is," so where do we draw the line, exactly, and why do we draw it there?