"living, functioning human being"? ----????

Well start with the fact that there is no "person", no "self" no "identity" before the brain is developed enough to construct one. (BTW, what is your understanding of the word "functioning"?)

In the same way that a severe case of Alzheimer's causes a loss of self identity because the brain can no longer maintain that illusion, an embryo and fetus are incapable of the construction of a "self".

Tell me again why it was ok to pull the plug on Terry Schiavo??? Oh, yeah, because she wasn't Terry Schiavo anymore.

When is the brain sufficiently able to construct a sense of identity? About the exact same time it is capable of storing and retrieving memories.

Is there some reason to NOT discussing the Health Care problems in our country? Does it have to be a concerted effort to obscure the problem with mindless rhetoric intended to inflame people into incoherent knee jerk reactions????

Maybe if we lived in a just world, there would have been place for Jesus to be born other than a feeding trough, maybe Mary could have had an attending physician (whatever passed for that in that time).

We don't live in a just world. We live in a world of corporate interests... WORTH means VALUE and they are measured by DOLLARS. Nothing is worth anything unless it can be sold.

So our Republican friends in the Senate have decided that the only health care WORTH having is the best care...