as before their coma, it would be hard to argue them a different person due to
their break in consciousness.
This argument causes me to question how Locke would explain a person
who has been medically diagnosed as ‘brain-dead’. If there is a body, alive and
breathing in a hospital bed, with no consciousness, thoughts or memories, surely
an application of Locke’s theory would mean this is not the same person as
before they were brain dead. This presents me with many unanswered questions
regarding what their identity becomes and whether Locke would even consider
them a person anymore. To conclude that this body is not the same person as
they were before they became brain dead seems immoral and insensitive to me,
not to mention upsetting for family members and loved ones and quite frankly
hard to believe. When referring to this definition, many moral questions arise in
real life scenarios and medical situations such as how a doctor gains permission
to treat someone with no memories. If this person cannot have an identity, then
next of kin cannot give permission for treatment as they, surely, they cannot
prove to be the next of kin. In fact, according to Locke’s definition, this patient
would now be a man, but not a person. Furthermore, Locke’s argument raises
moral questions of accountability. Locke argues strongly in favour of
accountability, however, if the victim of a crime is asleep or brain-dead and
therefore of a different (or lacking) consciousness and identity, how can their
awake self hold someone accountable in a criminal case if not the defendant?
Overall, I find undeniable strength in the argument that a person’s identity
can be found in the persistence of their memories and awareness of their
continued existence through said memories. It is certainly a logical way of
concluding that a person is the same person they have always been as no one
else will have these memories or persistent experience of their existence.
However, I believe that Locke’s argument has a major flaw in its failure to explain
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