Exercise4.2.25

PHI332 : The Class : Argument Evaluation : Analogy : Exercise4.2.25

Exercise4.2.25

The space explorer analogy

Target

The fetus is a potential person: "if nurtured and allowed to develop naturally it will very probably become a person."
Therefore the fetus has "at least some right to life."

Analog as adjusted in 4.2.19

Background information. [A] space explorer falls into the hands of an alien culture, whose scientists decide to create a few hundred thousand or more human beings, by breaking her body into its component cells, and using these to create fully developed human beings, with , of course, her genetic code. We may imagine that each of these newly created individuals will . . . be a person. Imagine that the whole project will take only seconds, and that its chances of success are extremely high, and that our explorer knows all of this, and also knows that these people will be treated fairly. [The space explorer has a chance to act and escape.]

Specific background information for different versions:
(1): the space explorer will die if she does not escape.
(2): the space explorer will be imprisoned for a year for the process, but not lose her life, if she does not escape.
(3): the space explorer will be imprisoned only for a day if she does not escape.
(4): the space explorer was captured through no fault of her own.
(5): the space explorer was captured because of her own carelessness.
(6): the space explorer deliberately got captured knowing the consequences.

The analog is the same for each version:

Each of the few hundred thousand or more cells is a potential person: "all have a very high probability of becoming people very soon, if only she refrains from acting."
Therefore each of these cells has "at least some right to life."

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Check your work.

Once you have completed this excercise you should:

Go on to Topic 3: Writing an Evaluation of an Article-Length Argument
or
Go back to Argument from Analogy

E-mail George Rudebusch at George.Rudebusch@nau.edu
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