FAK

Question 1

Personhood

Aristolte’s 3 stages of foetal development

Answer 1

1. Plant like - grows but does not feel
2. Animal like: feels and acquires sensations
3. Human: awake in the womb and fully alive; although female foetuses are slower than male foetuses to become human

Question 2

According to UK Law (2008)

when does a foetus become a human?

Answer 2

Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990:
experimentation on embryos is allowed up to 14 days of gestation because there is ‘no primitive streak’ (nervous system).
Abortion is legal up to 24 weeks as it is not viable outside of the womb

Question 3

What are the important determinants of FAK in contemporary Britain? (3)

Answer 3

1. Social acceptance (eg gay marriage)
2. Living arrangements
3. Cultural

Question 4

Daniel Schneider’s view of kinship

Answer 4

“Kinship… is a non-subject since it does not exist in any culture known to man”

“Kinship is an artifact of the anthropologists analytic apparatus and has no concrete counterpart in the cultures of any of the societies we studied”

Question 5

What are the three things Schneider rejected?

Answer 5

1. The assertion that “kinship… has to do with reproduction”
2. The assertion that all mankind is genealogically composed
3. The implicit conception of ‘biology’ as underpinning ‘kinship’