Is a foetus a person? Why or why not?

Question

An argument regarding abortion would usually follow as thus:

1) It is wrong to kill an innocent person

2) A foetus is a person and is innocent; OR A foetus is not a person

Therefore,

3) It is wrong to kill a foetus (Abortion is wrong); OR It is not wrong to kill a foetus (Abortion is not wrong).

The conclusion in both cases follows logically from the prepositions, which may or may not be right.

The belief that it is wrong to kill an innocent person is fairly uncontroversial. However, whether or not a foetus is a person is much more controvertible.

What is your reason for thinking that a foetus is or isn't a person?

Answer 1

Whether a fetus is a person or not is mute.  The question is whether any god wants people to die.  For that answer people should go ask god.

Morality is often dictated by the person in charge, king, leader of a country... etc.  Mortals often make mistakes, that's why it is important to have democracy so that mistakes could be corrected, refined or reversed when time changes.  If god is the ultimate ruler with ultimate power, then people should leave it for god to rule or take action to prevent the wrong doing.  Note I said god, not religion nor the scriptures for they have so far done a poor job to represent their god(s) who is absent from the scene.

Answer 2

1.  A fetus is a human being, when humans have fertilized via their gametes.  It is not a giraffe, palm tree, or dog.

2.  "Babies Remember Birth," David Chamberlain, Ph.D., indicates there are pre-birth memories, indicating individuality.

3.  Saint Paul writes of being chosen in his mother's womb, Saint John the Baptist is said to have intuited Jesus' Presence while in his mother's womb, etc.

4.  A six-foot woman is a person; a three-foot girl is a person; a six-inch fetal girl is a person.  Size is not a determining factor.

5.  A six-foot woman on life-support is a person; a six-inch fetal girl on life support is a person.  Degree of energy-independence is not a determining factor.

6.  A six-foot woman in a room or in Yosemite camping is a person; a fetal girl in a womb is a person.  Location is not a determining factor of personhood.

7.  A 60-year-old woman is a person; a fetal girl of six prenatal months is a person.  Age is not a determining factor of personhood.

8.  The inner child, the inner childlike joy, love, trust, and so on, is the human soul.  The inner child of the fetus displays various emotions, e.g. fear during ultrasonic examination (the sound is disturbing, loud, and heard), and pain during "abortion"--a non-personal term describing the murder of a preborn human being.

"Expecting Adam," Martha Beck, is a most profound account of this Harvard Ph.D. who, during her feminist sociology studies, became pregnant, and wrestled with the "abort it, it's not convenient" argument.

One additional consideration:  some human qualities are modulated by genetic components.  A fetal person has 1/2 of her father's personality-dna qualities and emotions, and 1/2 of her mother's personality-dna components.  By destroying the child, one is destroying a human already beginning to express both its dad's and mom's personality grace-inheritance.

Answer 3

It would be no answer but yes, Fetus do absolutely has life in itself. If you could see how it's cells grow and develops to be mature, it is it's fight already in his own world to survive. And therefore abortion is about killing a life.

For more information read books about Embriology, Cells, Reproductive Biology, etc

Answer 4

A foetus is NOT a person.  

A foetus grows INTO a person.

Would you say that an acorn is an oak tree?  No, but an acorn grows INTO an oak tree.  But just because one will become another doesn't make the two equivalent.

-John

Answer 5

My objection to it, is rather sentimental. It is not based on whether it is a life or not. Even assuming that it is not qualified to be called a life, it has the potential to be a life and a life dear to you, as your own progeny. That is what hurts.

Let me share with you my own experience.

I found my wife having conceived during a period when she was under some medication. The medical opinion was overwhelming in that the medication might harm the foetus that has been conceived. There were some doctors who were in some Christian missionary hospitals who said that not in all cases that harms the baby. But, the majority agreed that there is a 50:50 chance for damage. With a heavy heart, we had to abort the baby. It happened some 20 years ago. The memory haunts me and my wife. I am unable to completely shake away the guilty feeling.

Answer 6

you are guilty of the hugely popular fallacy when it comes to abortion. your string of logic clouds the real point.

you need to wonder why it is illegal to kill an innocent person.

1.because if it was legal you would need to fear for your life.

2.because killing a person hurts those that know or love them.

3. because ending the life of a self aware being is unethical.

i can think of no more.

a fetus if you allow it to be destroyed, but only with consent of both parents, does not conflict any of these reasons for murder being illegal.

so it doesn't matter if you call it a person or not. there is no reason to make it illegal. if you call a fetus a person then it should be ok to kill fetus people with consent of both parents, and it is ok to kill innocent people as long as they are a fetus and as long as you have consent of both parents.

but of course there is also always the religious thing. but it has no choice but to be stuck in the same fallacy you are stuck in because it relies on faith and only the ideas written in a book who's authors have been dead for 1500 yrs give or take. it can't think this way.

Answer 7

I think a better way of looking at it would be to identify the attribute that people have that makes killing them immoral, and then evaluate whether a foetus (or embryo as the case may be) possesses that attribute.

I mean obviously a foetus is composed of human cells.  But we kill human cells every time we scratch ourselves.  And what if we came across a being who was not human, but who was intelligent in the same sense that we are?  Surely if this being were innocent then it would be immoral to kill it, I doubt many people would disagree with that.  So being a person isn't really the point.

Answer 8

#2 is decided by evidence, not arguments. Not politicians, judges or priests get to decide. As of now, the medical system does not recognize a fetus as a person.

Anyone can see the dangers in giving the government the power to legislate medical decisions. Roe vs. Wade should never have been a court issue.

Answer 9

abortion is wrong, a foetus still has potential to be something and develop into something truly amazing

Answer 10

The fetus, in the early stages (this does not include instances of extreme late term abortion) does not have a developed brain or the capacity to live independently from the mother. It is really similar to a vegetable. I think, for me, that is what differentiates a fetus from a person who has been born, and why I feel differently about abortion than I do homocide.

Also, should anyone be forced to keep someone alive who can't independently live on their own? In other words, should we, as governments, force someone to act as life support for another person? In my opinion, it's not ok for governments to force someone to act as life support.

Governments don't force people to donate kidneys to people who are dying and need them. Why is that? Would that be wrong to force someone to do that? I see forced pregnancy in a similar light. Yes, it would be nice to donate the kidney to someone, or donate blood marrow to save a life, but do we all do it? No. In that light, should we expect all women who have unwanted pregnancies to give birth?