The "us" is objectified by an Other and hence has the ontological status of being-in-itself but the collective subject or "we," he insists, is simply a psychological experience.
Even if it did turn out that being a Homo sapiens was necessary and sufficient for being a human being, the moral status of human beings would not be grounded in their biology.
There are sharp disagreements about how, or even whether, the moral status of human beings must be grounded, and about the weight to be given to our strongest and most considered, moral convictions.
But accounts of the second type deny that the full and equal moral status of human beings can be grounded in any specific attribute, individually- or group-based, that can be described in morally neutral terms.
However, these potentiality accounts make no advance with respect to the problem of accounting for the equal status of all beings with FMS, since sophisticated capacities, which can be exercised well to varying degrees, are still treated as the source of moral status.
It is not enough to provide principles adjudicating these conflicts (as does Taylor 1986, p. 261); one must justify these principles in a way that is not grounded in the moral status of the beings under consideration (since their status is taken to be equal).
Or, to take another example, there may be a large difference in the strength of reasons to save each of two beings from death, but this difference may have little to do with the moral status of the beings.
Although the two approaches pick out the same individuals human beings, the way in which they ground moral status gives them different implications for the status of human beings with radical cognitive impairments.
Critics and proponents disagree whether these considerations can establish reasons that are for these beings' sake (e.g., reasons not to interfere); hence, it is unclear whether they can establish the moral status of the beings in question.
The literal meaning of the word angel thus points more toward the function or status of such beings in a cosmic hierarchy rather than toward connotations of essence or nature, which have been prominent in popular piety, especially in Western religions.
