Personhood/fetal
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fetal personhood i.e. the question of when, or if, a human fetus should be considered a "person"
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About
The concept of fetal personhood arises within the debate over abortion, where the question can be rephrased thusly: At what point does a fetus become a person? If we accept a definition of "person" which includes the idea (or law) that it is wrong/illegal to kill a person who has done no wrong, then it would certainly be wrong/illegal to kill a fetus if the fetus has attained personhood (since there cannot yet have been any opportunity for the fetus to do any wrong).
This argument, however, seems to be somewhat oversimplifying the situation. For example, thinking of the fetus as being like someone in a coma (unconscious and unable to communicate), is it permissible to withdraw life-support? How does the fact of the fetus's likely "recovery" from this condition (requiring many years of "training" to gain adult competency) balance against the uncertainty of the coma victim's recovery? (And of course some people are vehemently against euthanasia even in the case of a vegetative state.)
Extremist Position
Many "pro-life" advocates state that human life (and therefore personhood) begins at conception, and that therefore abortion should be considered unacceptable from that moment, i.e. from the beginning of pregnancy; in other words, they argue that all abortion is unacceptable.
Related Pages
- anti-abortion aka pro-life
- human pre-birth development
- photo of a 5-week-old embryo, with some related information
