I Think, Therefore I Am

     Abortion is a hot subject in today’s society.  Is it right or is it wrong?  In my own search for this answer, I came across a roadblock to both arguments.  How can you determine whether it is morally good or bad without first defining what life is?  Certainly taking a life is wrong.  But at what point is life actually formed?  Taking a closer look at this issue, I realized that I was in fact asking the wrong question.  Both eggs and sperm are considered to be “alive”.  That would mean that a teenage boy potentially commits genocide multiple times while in his own privacy.  That cannot be a good way of finding the point when you become alive.  Instead, I believe that the word consciousness is the correct word that needs proper defining.  Your own ability to perceive the stimuli that make up the world is crucial to this argument.  Is a fetus actually aware of what is going on when they are being aborted?  Awareness of the world around you really is what makes life meaningful and in a sense actually defines life.  The question starts to reform itself from “Is a fetus alive?” to “”Is a fetus conscious?”  And if it isn’t aware, is it wrong to abort it?  The issue requires a definition of consciousness to become clearer.  We will look at 2 criteria that make up consciousness.  One is the anatomical requirement while the other is physiological requirement.  These two requirements to have consciousness are a presence of the thalamocortical cortex, and the experience of perception.  These are what make up consciousness and without consciousness than there isn’t human life as we know it. 

To define consciousness in the realm of the beginning of life, you also have to account for the end of life as well.  The requirements should cover both ends of the spectrum.  In 1998 Teresa Marie “Terri” Schiavo showed up on televisions everywhere.  She was the focus of an extremely controversial and morally challenging case in Florida.  Teresa suffered full cardiac arrest in February of 1990.  Due to lack of oxygen, she suffered severe brain damage and went into a coma.  The coma led to her to go into a persistent vegetative state.  In 1998, her husband petitioned that her feeding tube be removed but her parents opposed him saying that she was conscious.  A persistent vegetative state is defined as a disorder of consciousness in which patients with severe brain damage that were in a coma, progress to a state of partial arousal rather than true awareness.  This means that their brain stem is relatively intact, allowing for vegetative functions like heart rate and respiration) but completely lack cognitive function (Persistent Vegetative State).   After 7 years of heated trials the emotional case ended with Terri’s feeding tube being removed on March 18, 2005.  She died thirteen days later.  The key point to analyze from this emotional case is the idea of a vegetative state (Terry Schiavo Case).  There is a lack of legal clarity when it comes to persistent vegetative states (PVS).  The United States and the United Kingdom require petitions that any recovery of cognitive functions above a vegetative state is assessed as impossible by authoritative medical opinion.  There is a grey area since people have gained cognitive function after being diagnosed with PVS.  This legal conundrum could be caused from misdiagnosis of PVS.  Several studies have found that a large percentage of patients diagnosed with PVS were misdiagnosed.  Also some cases could be misdiagnosed and actually be in a minimally conscious state instead.  These misdiagnoses are a good reason as to why there can’t be a decisive statement that people are unable to regain consciousness after going into PVS (Persistent Vegetative State). 

            So where does the Schiavo case fit in with the discussion of consciousness?  PVS is essentially an end to cognition.  Without being aware, you are essentially just there.  There is no thought, just mindless motions (if that).  To make a comparison as to what this is like, I first concede to you that it comes off as insensitive.  Without your consciousness, you are essentially reduced to a state that is quite comparable to what a zombie would be classified as.  Now, zombies are not real, but in discussion most people would tell you that they are not alive.  The Max Planck Society has been actively working on “re-animation” research.  They take dead tissues and bring them back to life.  The brain can be re-animated, but essentially only brings back the brain stem.  This leaves zero cognition, memories, etc. (Reanimation Research).  That is the same situation that Teresa Schiavo would have faced if the technology arrived to re-animate her.  She would have the basic motor functions but would be without memories, cognition, and any sort of intelligence whatsoever.  That is not living; it’s just an empty, mobile vessel.

            The first criterion in defining consciousness is the anatomical presence of the thalamocortical cortex.  The thalamocortical cortex is the largest part of the human brain and constitutes of the thalamus and the cerebral cortex.  The thalamus receives information from the nerves and sends those signals up into the cortex.  The cortex is where the information is the processed and reactions to those signals are sent out to the body.  In short, the thalamus collects and sends the information up into the cortex and the cortex then becomes “aware” of the senses and has a reaction sent out (Mitchell).  Being able to feel connotates consciousness and sentience (or at least the rudimentary beginnings of it) and this “awareness” is just that.  It relays your sensory messages to your higher order cerebrum.  Without this part of the brain, only your brainstem will be active.  This will only conduct your most basic motor and regulatory (heart and respiratory) systems.  All awareness and sensory recognition would be nonexistent.  This system is essentially the anatomical “conscious”.  Its presence gives rise to reactions to stimuli, emotions and thought.  All things that we consider important to interacting with the world around us are enabled here.  What is key is that it is essential to have the presence of this system for us to accept, analyze and react to the stimuli that are both internal as well as external of our body.  Going back to the creation of life, a fetus lacks this critical system up until the 24^th to 28^th week of gestation.  This time frame is when the thalamocortical cortex is established (Koch).  By the third trimester, the circuitry elements are all in place for consciousness and a preterm infant would be able to survive outside of the womb with proper medical care.  This is a telling insight into when our life begins.  Without the presence of this particular part of your brain, you wouldn’t be able to sustain basic life functions outside of a womb.  That same system also is important again, for the defining of consciousness when it comes to the physiological portion.

            Perception is the second criterion of defining consciousness.  Perception is “the process of attaining awareness or understanding of the environment by organizing and interpreting sensory information (Perception).”  This is what follows from the presence of the thalamocortical cortex.  Every kind of input from the outside world as well as your body internally is perceived by your brain.  I want to pause here to clarify that this is not an academic discussion into altered states, dreaming or artificial intelligence as those are all completely separate topics all together.  They are each difficult to define in their own way, and attempting to incorporate them into this discussion would not contribute productively to an end result. With that said, the thalamocortical cortex constitutes as most of the human brain.  It includes the thalamus and the cerebrum and the connections between them.  This part of the brain is your higher order of thinking and is what differentiates us from most other animals.  It provides you the sensory input as well as the proper outputs to the information that was processed.  Now, how can you tell when this perception actually begins?  It’s a difficult question to answer.  Many people argue that someone can’t perceive senses until birth.  This argument is based on the assumption that you can’t really perceive something until there is a change in your environment.  A fetus in the womb couldn’t possibly be able to sense anything because it only knows one environment and senses are based on a disruption in your environment.  Through research and my own thought process, I have come to the consensus that this process of perception should be possible once the thalamocortical cortex becomes present in the brain.  In the womb the fetus is held in a constant sedation from the placenta, which keeps the baby in one of two sleep states.  Whether it’s active or quiet sleep, the two sedated sleep states allow for the brain to develop optimally.  When the umbilical cord is pinched off from a lamb fetus, keeping it sufficiently oxygenated, the lamb moves and breathes continuously (Koch).  This really shows that even while in the womb, a fetus has the ability to perceive disruptions in its environment.

            With all of the controversy surrounding abortion it’s important to have a common ground starting point for the argument.  The defining of the word life is a good start and to do so, one must first define consciousness.  Consciousness can be defined by the presence of the thalamocortical cortex in the brain, and the ability to perceive the senses around you.  The criteria are pivotal and necessary to successfully fall into the category of being conscious and therefore being alive.  Life is the beginning of everything important that has ever happened on this Earth.  This moment, the creation of life, couldn’t be more important.  It’s the beginning of life – the beginning of all possibility. 

Works Cited

"Persistent Vegetative State." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 22 Nov. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistent_vegetative_state>.

"Terri Schiavo Case." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 22 Nov. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terri_Schiavo_case#Schiavo_I:_end-of-life_wishes>.

"Reanimation Research." 2000. Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. Web. 22 Nov. 2011. <http://www.2000plus.mpg.de/e/90/article/>.

Mitchell, Kevin. "Psst!… Pass It On! Cortical Communication via the Thalamus." Wiring the Brain. 21 Feb. 2010. Web. 22 Nov. 2011. <http://wiringthebrain.blogspot.com/2010/02/psst-pass-it-on-cortical-communication.html>.

Koch, Christof. "When Does Consciousness Arise in Human Babies?" Science News, Articles and Information | Scientific American. Scientific American, 2 Sept. 2009. Web. 22 Nov. 2011. <http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=when-does-consciousness-arise>.

"Perception." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 22 Nov. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perception>.