[Sifmole]

[ QUOTE ]
<font color="blue">You answer was not quite clear to me, but your other answer led me to believe that you were saying that the order of execution should follow the brain, not the body -- do I understand correctly? </font>

I assumed your question was, "Which person WILL die if the execution is carried out" My answer was, whoever's brain is in the executed body. But I now see you were really asking, "Who SHOULD die? Or is it moraly correct to execute George's body, if it now has Harry's brain in it?".

I do not place much significance on the body, so I would say it's ok to execute Harry's body if it possesses George's brain. And to let George's body go if it has Harry's brain.

If a criminal's mind was in my body (and my brain were in someone else's), I would say, go ahead and place my former body in the execution chamber. The body is now in possession of a criminal mind.

And that is my answer. My rationale is that the person follows the brain not the body. Why? Because I believe in evolution. I believe we are who we are, because of the way nature organized the synapses and neurons of our brain. We are who we are because of the way nature designed us, not God. We are who we are because of the way we think, not because of the way we look.


However, I don't think every atheist would agree with me on this. And I also suspect there are theists who WOULD agree with me. You have moved the discusion from one of the soul to one of morals. Btw- What would your answer be?

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually I didn't intend the question to move to one of morals -- but was instead an attempt to rephrase the "soul" question as relevant to a situation for those who don't subscribe to a belief in the soul.

My answer would actually beg the question a bit: if it is possible to transplant brains ( as apparently the situation implies ) then I think the brains should be re-transfered to their original bodies, and then the execution carried out.

Also, if you are truly interested, you may want to do some reading regarding early childhood development; specifically how delayed gross motor development can have an adverse affect on "thought" skills such as speech. The body a brain is connected to greatly affects the way the brain develops, so is it really so easy to say that the brain defines the "who" of a person?