Consciousness

Considering Measures of Consciousness

The issues of consciousness and personhood addressed in the U.S. Constitution are related. To show the unborn are conscious reverses Roe v. Wade according to the ruling.[1] The issue of consciousness had been observed during the Terri Schiavo case. She "flat"-lined on EEG readings.[2]

Considering Christian Teaching

I have heard those presenting Christian views who doubt assertions that consciousness is by the spirit. They fall prey to atheistic ideas. Yet Christian teaching explains we are not conscious by our brain. We are conscious by our spirit. Holding to Biblical views, agreeing with Jesus' Christ teaching, there is life beyond the tomb (Revelation 6:11). "The body without the spirit is dead" (James 2:26). There is consciousness after death (Matthew 17:3, 27:52-53, Luke 23:43, II Corinthians 12:2).

Consciousness Without EEG

The physical signs of life are indicative and not the whole of life. The physical signs are not the entirety of man's existence. So in modern and post-modern times there are cases of near-death experiences that have cited conscious thought processes where no EEG readings are present.[3] The argument I believe was held by Terri Schiavo's parents. They possibly witnessed "out of body" experiences. While her husband contested. And great argument ensued.

Consciousness With EEG

But consider, in 2005 alone, over 100,000 people died with EEG greater than that EEG debated by the Court at the time of the Terri Schiavo case. Those killed, unborn, had greater EEG, which was apparently acknowledged by the Court as indication of conscious thought, as they reviewed EEG, EEG being used in part to determine the decision in her case, and the persons, 2005, with greater EEG lost their lives with relatively little notice.[4]

If Terri Schiavo had the same EEG as 22 week gestation infants would she still be here today?

This following letter to the editor had summarized. I had written in the paper's 600 word format:

LETTER TO THE EDITOR:

Regarding Roe v. Wade (1973), the United States Supreme Court said, "If the suggestion of personhood is established, the appellants' case (for abortion), of course, collapses, for the fetus' right to life would be guaranteed specifically by the (Fourteenth) Amendment."[5] The debate regarding consciousness was revisited during Schiavo. The level of debate demonstrated that it is understood that conscious awareness is accepted as the point where we acknowledge life.

There have been over forty million abortions since Roe v. Wade--many children.[6] So their consciousness cannot in good conscience be less considered than has been true in Schiavo. Brain waves are recorded at 22 weeks gestation, and by 24 readings are increasingly like newborns.[7]

While I was a student at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh in the 1970's I observed as we reproduced our body characteristics unintentionally while we viewed a model.

Development in utero is intrinsic in the development of human personality. It was the personality of Terry Schiavo which sparked sentiment, and plagued her angry husband who insisted she was dead. So the advent of unusual mechanisms to maintain life has instituted more involved measures to quantify life.[8] We are looking at the unborn intently. And the means to take life are being examined. Devaluing a person, in the beginning of life, the end, or between, cannot be taken lightly. Life and death questions are God-fearing ones. So in defense of unborn children, consider that while I was a student at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh in the 1970's I observed as we reproduced our likeness innately while we viewed a model. Drawings depict artists' expression. And children depict their likeness I believe in their work.

Like we had in art school, children draw body characteristics parallel to their body development in the womb.

Early in creative development, as if in conjunction with in utero neurological development, children's figure drawings indicate bodily characteristics parallel to their developing body. The physical addition of body parts in children's drawings parallels the stages of the development of the human body. Children's drawings include the circular form for the head that is developed by the addition of arms attached, legs attached, later a small body that enlarges, as the arms are moved to the torso. There comes a point where children begin "baseline drawing," where a figure that has been floating takes a position on the bottom of the page where a line indicating gravity has been drawn.[9] This sequence depicts the developmental stages of the human body, conveys the realization of gravity, and parallels the neurological development intrinsic with the development of consciousness, that development which is taking place in early stages. Children's art conveying these things must be considered where the enigma forms the basis of childhood developmental psychology.[10] The "draw a man test" signifies the understanding that the sequence of tadpole drawings is so pervasive that it spans across decades in research.[11]

As Viktor Lowenfeld stated in Creative and Mental Growth,

"Although it is not clear just how the person symbol originates, the universality of the circle for the head and the two lines representing legs gives support to the notion that this is somehow biological in nature; that is all children, either through their sight, hand control, or cognitive development, make surprisingly similar configurations for a person. This is true for children from cultures as diverse as Australian Aborigines and United States Middle Class (Brittain, 1985.) Golomb's studies (1977) of the representational development of the human figure found no differences attributable to socioeconomic or cultural influences."[12]

Children draw figures that are a depiction of their development in utero I believe because the conscious children that experience the development are retelling that experience in their drawings. Their lives are precious, valuable, created in God's image, and should be celebrated, honored and protected (Genesis 1:26).


[1] "The Right to Life Act of 2005," The Conservative Voice; available from http://www.theconservativevoice.com/articles/article.html?id=8950; Internet; accessed 5 March 2006.
[2] "Terri Schivo's 2002 CT scan," The Abrams Report, MSNBC; available from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7328639; Internet; accessed 12 February 2008.
[3] Neal Grossman, Ph.D., "What Happens When We Die: A Philosophical Series, My Beliefs About Life After Death," Journal of Religion & Psychical Research, 4; Mally Cox-Chapman, The Case for Heaven: Near-Death Experiences as Evidence of the Afterlife (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1995).
[4] "Facts on Induced Abortion in the United States," Guttmacher Institute, January 2008; available from http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion.html; Internet; accessed 12 February 2008; Gregg Easterbrook, "Abortion and Brain Waves," New Republic 222, no. 5 (1 January 2000): 21-25.
[5] "The Right to Life Act of 2005," The Conservative Voice.
[6] Phillip Levine, "Is There Any Substance to the 'Roe Effect?'" Society 42, no. 5 (July/August 2005): 15-17.
[7] Gregg Easterbrook, "Abortion and Brain Waves," New Republic, 21-25.
[8] Eric Cohen and Leon Kass, "Cast Me Not Off in Old Age," Commentary 121, no. 1 (January 2006): 32-39.
[9] Viktor Lowenfeld, Creative and Mental Growth (New York: Macmillan, 1987), 223.
[10] Maureen Cox, Children's Drawings of the Human Figure (East Sussex, UK: Lawrence Erlbaum Associated Ltd., 1993); Richard Gregory, Oxford Companion to the Mind (New York: Oxford, 1987), 101-110, 135-138.
[11] Marvin Simner, "School Readiness and the Draw-A-Man Test: An Empirically Derived Alternative to Harris' Scoring System," Journal of Learning Disabilities 18, no. 2 (February 1985).
[12] Lowenfeld, Creative and Mental Growth, 223.


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