Thank you for your long, thoughtful answer!

1. I would consider mentally disabled people congnizant. They know they are alive. They are capable of great joy, and they are capable of experiencing great pain, too. Now, if the choice were between a long life full of little joy and serious suffering and a short life with less suffering, I might choose the shorter life with less suffering - for myself, for a loved one, for my dog. But it would require a serious study of all available data.

2. I don't eat meat, actually. If I can survive and be healthy without harming an animal with a developed nervous system, then I'm happy to go without meat. But I do eat eggs ;) even if they're fertilized (My mom had a couple of hens and a rooster so you better bet most of those eggs were fertilized. Delicious, too.)But I would never eat the hen if I had another nutritious choice. Nor would I force the hen to lay an egg that might do her harm or cause her 9 months of pain. The fertilized egg just isn't on the same level to me as the hen is.

Also, if I were driving my car and had a choice of whether to hit a human woman or a deer (and couldn't miss both), I'd choose to hit the deer. Perhaps it's the greater level of awareness that makes me value the human more. I'm not sure.

3. I do think there's a point where an unborn baby is cognizant and therefore shouldn't be aborted - I think to me that would be at the point where the baby could survive on its own (6 months or so into the pregnancy?) but perhaps I should do more research before making that statement.

Anyway, these are interesting questions that have been debated a million times before...but I must say, I feel rather bad for your hypothetical couple wherein the woman hasn't concieved after 10 years - do they have to separate? what if they really love each other? What if it's the man who's infertile and not the woman? (who are we kidding, almost every society ever before modern medicine has blamed the woman).

Anyway, nice to talk to you, hope you have a good day.