What characteristics or qualities are necessary before you can call something human?

[Burgold]

What makes us human... or people? What characteristics, traits, qualities whether biological or other does an organism have to have to be called human.

Without relying on any resources, it's a bit harder than I thought to comprise a list, but I'd like to give it a shot. Please add, subtract, or criticize. I'm not sure if absolutely every item on the list is necessary, but I think all of them must exist during some part of the life cycle for an organism to be described as human.

I'll start with the things that make an object "alive"

Ability to reproduce

Motility

Grow (changing over time from child to maturity)

Then I would add some more subjective stuff...

Sentience

Emotion

Problem solving skills

Empathy

Finally, I'd add a few necessary odds and ends

Thumbs

Soul

conscience

a certain specific set of bones and organs and basic DNA coding

hatred of the Dallas Cowboys

[techboy]

Membership in the species homo sapiens sapiens.

More generally, if your parents are both humans, so are you.

[Tulane Skins Fan]

Must have had a tail during some stage of fetal development. The appearance of a tail is not good enough to qualify as human... must have an actual tail.

:paranoid:

[Burgold]

More generally, if your parents are both humans, so are you.

See, that would make a number of Cowboys or Eagle's fans technically human... and I don't think I can buy that, TB.

[hokie4redskins]

Conception by a human.

Close thread.

[Thiebear]

Birth Certificate: An apology letter provided by the condom factory.

(the answer is in there)

[Burgold]

So, anything conceived of by a human is a human. Anything I think up is human? That's pretty broad.

Hmm... I can think up a pretty broad.

[Drop]

well, you have to be a mammal.

[sacase]

Ability to reproduce

So what you are saying is homosexuals are not human and do not need human rights such as marriage.

[Burgold]

So what you are saying is homosexuals are not human and do not need human rights such as marriage.

Homosexuals have the ability to reproduce... they choose not too (which from a Darwinian point of view makes no sence at all... which makes me wonder why creationists don't support homosexuality since they are working towards the same goal?) :evilg:

[Prosperity]

Membership in the species homo sapiens sapiens.

More generally, if your parents are both humans, so are you.

that's good enough for me, even if it's just a semantic point

[SnyderShrugged]

Membership in the species homo sapiens sapiens.

More generally, if your parents are both humans, so are you.

winner winner chicken dinner!

[Larry]

Ability to reproduce

So, neither the aged nor children count?

What about really, really, ugly people?

[Burgold]

Ugly, ugly, people have the ability to reproduce... it's the opportunity that they sometimes lacked.

Tony Randall fathered a child at 72. It's only the females of the species that lose their humaness as they age

[Larry]

Tony Randall fathered a child at 72. It's only the females of the species that lose their humaness as they age

I call BS. You expect me to believe Tony Randall isn't gay?

[Burgold]

Well, he did experiment in the '70's with Oscar, but decided that they made an odd couple and went back to heterosexuality. That's when Oscar became decidedly grouchy.

[boofMcboof]

Eat. Poop. Opposable thumbs. Pay taxes.

[BigMike619]

dolphins have sex for pleasure and also babysit each others babies.

[Larry]

Eat. Poop. Opposable thumbs. Pay taxes.

Does "Porn" have to be added?

[Zhouse]

Ability to reproduce

female/male infertility is inability to reproduce. So what you're saying is not a trait of all beings.

[Vicious]

Uses agricultural techniques.

[Zhouse]

How about creativity? Being able to create something that has never existed or even been thought of...which leads to evolution.

[Vicious]

Some of the apes tend to be able to plan for the future. Saving up rocks to throw at tourists, funny stuff.

[SnyderShrugged]

Eat Poop. Opposable thumbs. Pay taxes.

eeewww, if eating poop is human, then I wanna be a martian!

[Burgold]

How about creativity? Being able to create something that has never existed or even been thought of...which leads to evolution.

So, you're saying that Republican Conservatives aren't human?