(Clifford)
Intent is demonstrated by action. The embryo is fully equipped with all the information and all the means to develop to a mature human and is actively pursuing that goal.
Does a robot have intention?
Does a tree?
This is a false standard of intention. Intention is the result of the application of the will not simply autonomic and instinctive function.
Intentions are not demonstrated by action alone. In fact no action is required for there to be intention as any procrastinator can attest to. What is required for intention is reason; the ability to perform an act that shows consistent results in accord with rational motives.
Once there is such a union of method and logic then there is the search for and application of means. You cannot make any such assertion for a fetus such that it has goals simply because it functions biologically.
Action alone doesn't require intent at all it only requires causality; cause and effect. Unless you are appealing to some type of determinism that suggests it is possible to have free will for it is impossible to have *intention* if there exists no choice; only cause and effect. However if there exists a sufficient degree of freedom such that the will is possible to express then intent follows as an issue but it still cannot overrule natural law.
Your implied interpretation of intention also doesn't follow from the dictionary.
intent
n.
1. Something that is intended; an aim or purpose. See Synonyms at intention.
2. Law. The state of one's mind at the time one carries out an action.
3. Meaning; purport.
adj.
Firmly fixed; concentrated: an intent gaze.
Having the attention applied; engrossed: The students, intent upon their books, did not hear me enter the room.
Having the mind and will focused on a specific purpose: was intent on leaving within the hour; are intent upon being recognized.
Is the goal of my skin to scar after an injury?
Is the goal of my hair and fingernails to lengthen daily even after I am dead?
(Clifford)
Again, you are talking about past intent. People change their minds. The cryogenic patient had a past intent to live but does so no longer.
Again Clifford this thread is not really about cryogenically preserved people, certainly not alone as a topic but perhaps about cryogenically preserved *
tissues*. As tissues the intent follows a causal relationship back to why the action was undertaken to preserve them, whether as frozen embryos
or adults, whether as frozen stem or skin cells.
The intentions belong not merely to the direct objects (if at all) but to the collection of individuals joined in the effort to create the result. This is not a single minded intent but the result of a collective endeavor. BTW, so is raising a family.
You are not really addressing the basics of intention.
A cryogenic patient can demonstrate intent through a *will* a mutually recognizable legal instrument with a consistent name. The fertilized zygote cannot.
Past intent is demonstrable not by action but by comparing the results in accord with a defined
purpose. You are applying the logic of Intelligent Design by presumption in order to attempt to provide a fetus with such an act of will and claim that there exists a *purpose*.
What purpose?
To live?
Schopenhauer's "Will to life" or Darwin's "instinct for survival"?
This is qualitatively as valid for the infant as the terminal patient. This is not a conscious act for mindless cells or a corpse.
Are you suggesting it is not a role defined by instinct?
Perhaps one of design?
Whose design?
The zygote without a mind in the first trimester or some external actors like parents, extended family, and society?
Or perhaps you seem to imply a grand design from an undefined being?
If the last then what difference?
How is it possible to consider some grand design as a part of our decision making when as natural laws they cannot be overruled or violated and as divine laws are not really subject to review, appeal or repeal?
http://dictionary.re...?r=67&q=Purpose
purpose
n.
1. The object toward which one strives or for which something exists; an aim or a goal: “And ever those, who would enjoyment gain/Must find it in the purpose they pursue” (Sarah Josepha Hale).
2. A result or effect that is intended or desired; an intention. See Synonyms at intention.
3. Determination; resolution: He was a man of purpose.
4. The matter at hand; the point at issue.
tr.v. purposed, purposing, purposes
To intend or resolve to perform or accomplish.
Idioms:
on purpose
Intentionally; deliberately.
to good purpose
With good results.
to little/no purpose
With few or no results.
The importance of results are not to determine whether or not purpose exists. It is to demonstrate the consistency and quality of purpose with respect to results as the measure of intent.
Action-reaction is simply cause and effect, determinism and consequence; for there to be implied a purpose there must exist a will. The analysis of results are how we determine if a given action is an example of intended or unintended consequence or simply the result of accident or associative incident. There must be demonstrable *design*, not merely as form and structure but as *explanation* along with a
plan for an action to be assigned a purpose.
Are you perhaps suggesting that there exists some purpose for genetic disease?
Some possible "goodness" that needs to be accepted perhaps?
Or some blame that results is a "deserved suffering" for a child to endure?
What purpose does a microbe have by infecting a patient?
To survive and thrive?
Or perhaps you are suggesting some grand design beyond natural selection for disease as well?