[BTirish]

[ QUOTE ]
Grant: when a human body has a functioning cerebral cortex.
Revoke: when a human body no longer has a functioning cerebral cortex.

[/ QUOTE ]

Per your request in the other thread, I'm willing to discuss the notion of personhood here. I will begin by asking what it is that is so special about a "functioning cerebral cortex" such that entities which possess one cannot morally be killed (as a general rule) while entities that don't possess one can be. You assert that the functioning cerebral cortex has a moral status not possessed by anything else in the universe? Why so?

Ultimately I suspect your answer will have to be given in terms of the kinds of activities for which you suppose a functioning cerebral cortex is the necessary and sufficient condition. That is, in terms of things like speaking, thinking, self-awareness, logical reasoning, etc. Is this the case?

I will be articulating a case very similar to that of vulturesrow. Hopefully I will be able to aid him in clarifying exactly what it is to have a capacity or faculty, why we must admit that the capacity or faculty must be considered to be present in the zygote, and why it is on the basis of the faculty or capacity that we are to consider a human zygote to be no less human (in terms of simply answering the question "what is it?") than a fully-grown human.

First, however, I await your answer to my previous question.