Personhood

The debate about abortion is simple. All of us agree that killing babies is immoral. What we disagree about is whether a 46-chromosome or 500+ cell organism is a human baby. And the idea of personhood is what drives the debate. Pro-choicers argue that this “blob of cells” is not a baby because it lacks Human Personhood. The evidence seems to be on their side. That is, when we look at these cells – they surely don’t look like a human baby and neither can they feel pain. But is human-likeness and pain the absolute test? With this in mind, consider the following:

The Classic Scenario Suppose that Mr. Drunk rapes his 12-year old daughter at 1PM. Let us also suppose that at exactly 2PM, the female egg is fertilized (46-chromosomes). Do we really believe these cells are now a baby? Do we not spit out more cells with much more DNA in any given day? Surely if we saw these 46-chromosomes lying on the sidewalk, we would simply walk over them. It then seems rational to look at these 500+ cells, and think, "If ever there were a right time for an abortion, this is it!" For if we could see inside the womb, we would see no baby. If we could see cells that small, we would see no arms, no legs, no eyes, no heart, and no brain. In fact if we were to poke these cells with a sharp needle, we would see no suffering or pain either. So what's the big deal in disposing of these cells now? In theory, we would have to wait at least five weeks to see anything resembling a baby, and up to 8-10 weeks before those cells could feel any pain. It is clear then that 2:00PM would be the perfect time to take the morning after pill and stop those 500+ cells from further division. Run to Wal-mart, get your Plan-B Pill, and move on with life.

[Rewind sound plays] But wait...are pain, human likeness, consciousness, or intelligence valid tests for personhood? Is it rational to accept that cell bodies lacking human likeness, consciousness or intelligence are not human persons?

• Don’t we know comatose people that have no consciousness and can feel no pain?
• Don’t we know people that are missing arms, legs, eyes, ears, etc?
• Don’t we even know people without hearts as well (e.g. heart transplant)?
• Don’t we also know people that just don’t look human (e.g. burn victims or deformed people)
• What about people with artificial body parts?

Are all of these people not persons then?

Let’s keep it simple No matter how we slice it, how many questions we ask, or how many biochemical rules we set up such as human organ development, pain sensation, body weight, or Brangelina likeness - these do not make "persons". At the end, we are left with this simple answer: Human Personhood begins at 46-chromosomes.

References:

• THE CODE FOR HUMAN LIFE
• WHY CAN'T WE LOVE THEM BOTH
• Is fetus pain relevant?