to default to a comfortable prejudice
shared by one's associates!
The term 'personhood' refers to the 'property'
of being able to have rights & duties (obligations).
Adult human beings are human lifeforms with apparent
'personhood' for example.
Historically, we've been too quick to discount
personhood when doing so was immoral;
for example, slavery (person discounted to
another person's property) Determination
of 'personhood' impacts not only the
contemporary human abortion issue but also
the morality of other life form encounters to come.
The intellectual & spiritual 'homework'
yet to be done by many, is to develop
a working criteria for who (or what)
gets to be considered a person AND why.
If you want that criteria to be
generally acknowledged it has to be
as rational and objective as possible.
Here are *my* 'tentative' COMBINED criteria for
who or what gets to be regarded as a person:
sentience- ability to consider essential
information about one's environment
(surroundings, situation and so on)
agency- power to act in one's environment
conscious volition- free will to intervene between
stimulus and response by making meaningful choices;
without which one can not be 'responsible' for
one's actions that interface with other persons
Imo, 'personhood' is about individual sovereigns
(whose 'domains' are their own bodies and
justly held possessions) being free moral agents;
which still leaves room for acts of compassion :)
Domains http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian/message/30419
Morals http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian/message/37899
There are three essential areas of moral concern about human abortion:
1. Personhood- At what point do rights and obligations accrue to a
developing individual?
The spectrum of opinion is from the moment of conception
(spiritual, before physical zygote) thru physical gestation to birth
and a few years beyond (human infanticide is actually NOT regarded as
murder in some societies)
2. Obligation- If a developing individual is deemed a 'person'
what, if any, duty to that person exists, to provide support?
No person has an 'automatic' claim on the resources of another
person to provide them with support. But, did voluntary action
by the 'host' person create an obligation to the 'dependent' person?
3. Fatal Eviction- If a 'host' person has a right to deny support
to a 'dependent' person, does said 'host' person's right to 'evict'
the 'dependent' person include doing so in such a way that is fatal
to said dependent?
People of sincere conscience can be found on all sides of these three
concerns.
'The unexamined life is not worth living'
Socrates, in Plato, Dialogues, Apology
Greek philosopher in Athens (469 BC - 399 BC)
at http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/24198.html
Please also enter the word consciousness at http://www.Google.com
-Terry Liberty Parker
see: 'Your Freedom and the Rigths of Others'
at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian/message/22990
ForumWebSiteAt http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian
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