Alpha Centauri
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Originally posted by Rogue Jedi
I read the thread. If its a potential human life, then it is a future something. If it reaches childbirth, it has achieved its future as a newborn infant. your logic is....well, its not really anything, because it does not exist.
False, entirely.
Potential means something or someone possessing the possible ability to become more than it is/they are.
From the English dictionary:
po·ten·tial
Adj;
1. possible, as opposed to actual: the potential uses of nuclear energy.
2. capable of being or becoming: a potential danger to safety.
3. Grammar. expressing possibility: the potential subjunctive in Latin; the potential use of can in I can go.
Noun;
4 possibility; potentiality: an investment that has little growth potential.
6. a latent excellence or ability that may or may not be developed.
E.g: Potential boyfriend/girlfriend, potential omelette, potential husband/wife, potential career.
In this case, potential human being. Capable of BECOMING one, not "Will definitely become.".
If it meant FUTURE, it would be guaranteed, it isn't. It's only possible.
Here's an excerpt from the American English Dictionary:
po·ten·tial
Adj;
1. Capable of being but not yet in existence*; latent: a potential problem.
2. Having possibility, capability, or power.
3. Grammar; of, relating to, or being a verbal construction with auxiliaries such as may or can; for example, it may snow.
Noun;
1. The inherent ability or capacity for growth, development, or coming into being.
2. Something possessing the capacity for growth or development.
*Not yet in existence, as in the human life is not yet in existence. The foetus just has the potential to be one, the cells just have the POTENTIAL to be a foetus.
So, that again;
Potential; possibly something else. Not future anything for certain, possibly, if allowed to be, not actually existing.
Do you have an argument to any of the aforementioned points and facts? Or do you wish to drop the "It's a future something if it has potential!" argument and proceed, civilly, to another area of abortion discussion?
-AC