Twinning and Star Trek Transporters

In an interview with NRO ‘s Kathryn Jean Lopez, philosopher Christopher Kaczor uses a sci-fi analogy to defend a pro-life position:

LOPEZ: What the heck does the Star Trek transporter have to do with the ethics of abortion?

KACZOR: In this debate [over abortion], many colorful and striking images and analogies are used — talking kittens, kidnapping space aliens, waking up hooked up to a violinist. For the most part, I avoid these bizarre analogies, but you’ve mentioned one bizarre analogy that I did not resist. My point was fairly simple that if you and I were fused into one — say via a machine like a Star Trek transporter gone amuck — that would not mean that you and I aren’t still individual, independent persons. So too, if human embryos fuse in utero, this does not mean that there weren’t two independent, individual embryos prior to fusion.

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