This is a selection of links about fetal personhood
- “Chapter, 5 Personhood Thresholds, Arbitrariness, and ‘Punctualism’”: Abstract: This chapter examines the punctualist and gradualist theses about the emergence of personhood. Punctualism views the beginning of personhood as something like an ‘existential pop’. On one side of the ‘pop’ there exists only human material, and on the other, a being which is essentially and completely a person. Persons do not emerge vaguely and incrementally, like human anatomy does; the beginning of their existence is instead sudden and absolute. In contrast, gradualism eschews the idea that persons come into existence instantaneously and completely—in the manner of an ‘existential pop’—and claims instead that personhood emerges gradually and incrementally. It is argued that there is good reason to reject the punctualist thesis and to accept the antithetical ‘gradualist’ view.
- “When does the fetus acquire a moral status of a human being? The philosophy of ‘gradualism’ can provide answers“
- “Personhood, Threahold, and Equality“
- “THE CONCEPTION VIEW OF PERSONHOOD:” By personhood, I mean something more than mere biological life. Person denotes a being that is a member of “the moral community” (Fieser & Dowden, 2002). This implies having rights and duties of a moral nature. This paper will analyze and defend the conception view of personhood: a human being is a person from the moment of conception and at every subsequent moment.
- “What is ‘personhood’? The ethics question that needs a closer look in abortion debates“
- “Pre-birth acquisition of personhood: Incremental accrual of attributes as the framework for individualization by serial and concurrently acting developmental factors” Discrete events and processes influence development of individual humans. Attribution of personhood to any individual human being cannot be disconnected from the underlying biological events and processes of early human development. Nonetheless, the philosophical, sociological and legal components that are integral to the meaning of the term as commonly used cannot be deduced from biology alone. The challenge for biomedical scientists to inform discussion in this arena then rests on profiling the key biological events and processes that must be assessed when considering how one might objectively reason about the task of superimposing the concept of personhood onto the developing biological entity of a potential human being.
- “Personhood status of the human zygote, embryo, fetus” This article is an original work critically analyzing the various arguments for human personhood at fertilization and thereafter. The various positions on human personhood are compared and contrasted herein. The time of the human lifespan at which personhood is conferred has important implications for health care, legislation, and personal autonomy.
- “Personhood In The Womb: A Constitutional Question” Should a pregnant woman whose behavior has been deemed dangerous to her fetus be legally punished or forced into medical procedures against her will? A study released earlier this year found hundreds of cases across the country where pregnant women were arrested and incarcerated, detained in mental institutions and drug treatment programs, or subject to forced medical interventions, including surgery.
- “When Fetuses Gain Personhood: Understanding the Impact on IVF, Contraception, Medical Treatment, Criminal Law, Child Support, and Beyond” After initial stumbling blocks, the fetal personhood movement has gained alarming steam. The idea of a fetus as a legal person has gone from a fringe idea, for which “political will” did not exist, to the ascendant framework of anti-abortion states.2 This fringe theory now has the ear of the U.S. Supreme Court, with Justice Alito’s majority opinion in Dobbs laying breadcrumbs for a fetal right to life under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments.