Guess who wrote these fine paragraphs?
I think that killing [a] kitten would be worse than killing [an] embryo. If you agree, dear reader, you stand beside me in the party of death. We don't think the lives of all human organisms have equal value. For my part, I hold that moral status depends on the nature of a creature's mind. This means that the lives of creatures that can think and feel -- regardless of their species -- are of greater value than the lives of creatures that cannot.[..]
According to liberals and other ordinary people, the moral status of something depends on what mental capacities it has. Do as you please with a baseball -- it has no mind, and thus no moral status. It's wrong, however, to beat a dog, because he can feel pain. But since dogs lack the understanding to participate in politics, they have no right to vote. Young humans can't vote until they've reached an age where we can expect mental qualities like maturity, rationality, and political awareness from them. Then they achieve a moral status such that denying them the vote, and many other rights, would be an injustice.
Our very own Neil the Ethical Werewolf. In The American Prospect. About Ramesh Ponnuru. Go read.
