Equal Worth?

In reference to the marginal cases argument, are all humans equal in value?

I would have to argue no for this one, too. It definitely seems a bit strange, and perhaps wrong to me, to suggest this, but I think it is the case. Of course, we did mention in class that this would possibly lead to some strange ethics. I'm not entire sure about the solution to this problem.

I do think that human infants and mentally disabled have less intrinsic value than adult humans. The source of this difference, I think, is the capacity of full cognition. This would then lead to the conclusion that even adult humans who have slightly lower cognition are worth less. There is, currently at least, no means to measure, cognition. I do think, however, that cognition can come in many forms, and that no form is necessarily better than any other; cognition through abstractions of numbers is no more valuable that cognition through spatio-temporal relations, and so on.

Come to think of it, however, for the most part, such a conclusion has no serious effect. The ability to experience and process pain is enough to prevent any person from harming another being. After a certain point of sentience and cognitive ability, it doesn't make much of a difference. The difference between the treatment of two people with similar but not equal cognitive abilities, would be none except that if you had to kill one, or cause one a significant amount of harm, you should choose to harm or kill the one with less cognitive ability. Since there is no way of know, and since it would hardly make a difference anyway, this moral choice is basically irrelevant.

Thoughts?