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Sorry I can't spell worth beans, and I type worse...sentient is the word I was staggering after.
First, I don't worry about the needs or feeling of a lump of rock. I considerate it inanimate. We can quibble over a virus...
Bacteria and up are animate to me. With all the rights and privileges conferred to the class. I am just pointing out that I don't draw a distinction between a rosebush and a rattlesnake, other that safety-wise. They are all a collection of living cells. And killing one set of cells is the same to me as another set of cells...(Have I killed to eat? Yes. However, like the Mikado, I draw no distinction between the sentence and who executes it. I accept the responsibility for the dead cells in the store that I buy for food...)
Sentient (or self-aware - I can spell that better). Where you draw the line is open to debate. I don't consider it a sharp line either... But, for convienence (another tought word to spell for me), I limit it currently to humans, because the issue was to try to answer DM, as best I could. It doesn't mean I'm logical, or right. Just trying to explain the "basis" for my world view.
Slayda, the tool part is vital, from my perspective. Are you "civilized" by being a domestic animal? I may or may not be "civilized", but I am definitely NOT a domestic animal. And you treat me as such at your own risk! But a large group of people do think that other humans are just a fancier, far more tricky, domestic animal; to be used when necessary for controller's ends, and then let go to fend for themselves until needed again. Once again, this is not a sharp line, but a spectrum, from slavery to telemarketing. They may think is OK if they get caught and used, they were just not tricky enough to get control; or they make think it's their inalienable right to control. I think that being self-aware grants one the dignity of not being treated as a domestic animal. That decision, or sense of dignity's existence, is the core nub of politics. Which was what I was trying to describe to DM.
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