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Originally Posted by John Wilkes Booth
that's true. but it's not a scientific distinction we're making, it's just a judgement call. like the age of consent.
edit - also, i think it's a little trickier than consciousness vs non-consciousness. essentially it is human life we're really concerned about, you're just saying you think consciousness is the point at which a human life earns protection. we have no problem slaughtering animals that are just as conscious as any human baby.
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Like I said, arbitrary. And I imagine the idea of consciousness is going to start being more and more important. From my understanding there's more and more talk about giving dolphins and whales status as "nonhuman persons", which wouldn't give them the same rights as human beings, but would guarantee them a right to life (or so I believe). This whole concept of secular personhood vs. souls seems to be a relatively new concept in the public consciousness, so it's no surprise that there are contradictions in our laws. Give it some indeterminate amount of time and I imagine the concepts of consciousness and personhood will start making more sense in a legal sense.