{"id":2101,"date":"2013-10-07T13:23:24","date_gmt":"2013-10-07T07:53:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/?p=2101"},"modified":"2014-02-07T11:14:24","modified_gmt":"2014-02-07T05:44:24","slug":"word-of-the-month-personhood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/word-of-the-month-personhood\/","title":{"rendered":"Word Of The Month: Personhood"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Chattanooga.png\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"637\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/social-media-5-great-pictures-we-used-and-what-they-said\/chattanooga\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Chattanooga.png\" data-orig-size=\"500,336\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Chattanooga\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Chattanooga-300x201.png\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Chattanooga.png\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-637\" alt=\"Chattanooga\" src=\"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Chattanooga-300x201.png\" width=\"300\" height=\"201\" srcset=\"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Chattanooga-300x201.png 300w, https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Chattanooga.png 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Personhood is the status of being a person.<\/p>\n<p>Sounds simple, right ? But defining personhood is a very controversial topic !! One needs to draw upon philosophy, anthropology, genetics, ethics as well as law to reach some conclusions.<\/p>\n<p>In law only a natural person or legal personality has rights, protections, privileges, responsibilities, and legal liability. (Ref: <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Legal_personality\" target=\"_blank\">Wikipedia<\/a>). There are many who attempt to limit the right to safe abortion by ascribing \u201c personhood\u201d to the fetus.<\/p>\n<p>Personhood is a topic of debate, often very heated, and has been questioned during the abolition of <a title=\"Slavery\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Slavery\">slavery<\/a> and the fight for <a title=\"Women's rights\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Women%27s_rights\">women&#8217;s rights<\/a>, in debates about <a title=\"Abortion\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Abortion\">abortion<\/a>, <a title=\"Fetal rights\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fetal_rights\">fetal rights<\/a> and <a title=\"Reproductive rights\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Reproductive_rights\">reproductive rights<\/a>, in <a title=\"Animal rights\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Animal_rights\">animal rights<\/a> activism, as well as in debates about <a title=\"Corporate personhood\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Corporate_personhood\">corporate personhood<\/a>. There are simply so many different ways of questioning or understanding what is a \u2018person\u2019 and we will list some here for you:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Capacities should include <a title=\"Human nature\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Human_nature\">human nature<\/a>, <a title=\"Agency (philosophy)\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Agency_(philosophy)\">agency<\/a>, <a title=\"Self-awareness\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Self-awareness\">self-awareness<\/a>, a notion of the past and future, and the possession of <a title=\"Rights\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Rights\">rights<\/a> and <a title=\"Duties\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Duties\">duties<\/a>, among others.<\/li>\n<li>Any human (or <a title=\"Non human\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Non_human\">non-human<\/a>) <a title=\"Agency (philosophy)\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Agency_(philosophy)\">agent<\/a> which: (1) possesses continuous <a title=\"Consciousness\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Consciousness\">consciousness<\/a> over time; and (2) who is therefore capable of framing representations about the world, formulating plans and acting on them.<sup><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Personhood#cite_note-7\"><br \/>\n<\/a><\/sup><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Harry G. Frankfurt\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Harry_G._Frankfurt\">Harry G. Frankfurt<\/a> suggests that the concept of a person is intimately connected to <a title=\"Free will\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Free_will\">free will<\/a>, and describes the structure of human <a title=\"Volition (psychology)\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Volition_(psychology)\">volition<\/a> according to first- and second-order desires: Besides wanting and choosing and being moved <i>to do<\/i> this or that, [humans] may also want to have (or not to have) certain desires and motives. They are capable of wanting to be different, in their preferences and purposes, from what they are.<\/li>\n<li>Still others have said a person is &#8220;an individual substance of a rational nature&#8221; , a conscious, thinking being, which knows that it is a person (<a title=\"Self-awareness\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Self-awareness\">self-awareness<\/a>).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/ithink.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"2102\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/word-of-the-month-personhood\/ithink\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/ithink.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"300,300\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"ithink\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/ithink.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/ithink.jpg\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-2102\" alt=\"ithink\" src=\"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/ithink.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/ithink.jpg 300w, https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/ithink-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/ithink-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>According to some criteria even <a title=\"Dolphin\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dolphin\">dolphins<\/a> could be considered persons ! In 2007, the parliament of the <a title=\"Balearic Islands\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Balearic_Islands\">Balearic Islands<\/a>, an autonomous province of <a title=\"Spain\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Spain\">Spain<\/a>, passed the world&#8217;s first legislation granting legal rights to all <a title=\"Great apes\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Great_apes\">great apes<\/a>.\u00a0In 1992, <a title=\"Switzerland\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Switzerland\">Switzerland<\/a> amended its <a title=\"Constitution of Switzerland\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Constitution_of_Switzerland\">constitution<\/a> to recognize animals as <i>beings<\/i> and not <i>things<\/i>.\u00a0A decade later, <a title=\"Germany\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Germany\">Germany<\/a> guaranteed rights to animals in a 2002 amendment to its constitution, becoming the first <a title=\"European Union\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/European_Union\">European Union<\/a> member to do so.\u00a0<a title=\"New Zealand\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/New_Zealand\">New Zealand<\/a> granted basic rights to five great ape species in 1999. Their use is now forbidden in research, testing or teaching.\u00a0In 2013, India officially recognized dolphins as non-human persons.<sup><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Personhood#cite_note-72\"><br \/>\n<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p><b>Why does this matter to us as advocates for safe abortion rights?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The <a title=\"Beginning of human personhood\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Beginning_of_human_personhood\">beginning of human personhood<\/a> is a concept long debated by religion and philosophy. According to some theories, once human beings are <a title=\"Birth\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Birth\">born<\/a>, personhood is considered automatic.<\/p>\n<p>A political movement in the <a title=\"United States\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/United_States\">United States<\/a> seeks to define the <a title=\"Beginning of human personhood\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Beginning_of_human_personhood\">beginning of human personhood<\/a> as starting from the moment of <a title=\"Fertilisation\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fertilisation\">fertilization<\/a> with the result being that abortion, as well as forms of birth control that act to deprive the human embryo of necessary sustenance in <a title=\"Implantation (human embryo)\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Implantation_(human_embryo)\">implantation<\/a>, could become illegal.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Susan Bordo\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Susan_Bordo\">Susan Bordo<\/a> has suggested that the overwhelming focus on the issue of personhood in abortion debates has often been an alibi for depriving women of their own rights as persons. She writes that &#8220;the legal double standard concerning the bodily integrity of pregnant and nonpregnant bodies, the construction of women as fetal incubators, the bestowal of &#8216;super-subject&#8217; status to the fetus, and the emergence of a father&#8217;s-rights ideology&#8221; demonstrate &#8220;that the current terms of the abortion debate \u2013 as a contest between fetal claims to personhood and women&#8217;s right to choose \u2013 are limited and misleading.&#8221;<sup><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Personhood#cite_note-35\"><br \/>\n<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>Until the fetus is viable, any rights granted to it may come at the expense of the pregnant woman, simply because the fetus cannot survive except within the woman&#8217;s body. Upon viability, the pregnancy can be terminated, as by a <a title=\"C-section\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/C-section\">c-section<\/a> or <a title=\"Induced labor\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Induced_labor\">induced labor<\/a>, with the fetus surviving to become a newborn infant.<\/p>\n<p><b>Philosophical aspects of the abortion debate<\/b><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/prochoice.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"2103\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/word-of-the-month-personhood\/prochoice-2\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/prochoice.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"420,294\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"prochoice\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/prochoice-300x210.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/prochoice.jpg\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-2103\" alt=\"prochoice\" src=\"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/prochoice-300x210.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"210\" srcset=\"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/prochoice-300x210.jpg 300w, https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/prochoice.jpg 420w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>The view that all or almost all abortion should be illegal generally rests on the claims: (1) that the existence and moral right to life of human beings (human organisms) begins at or near conception-<a title=\"Fertilization\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fertilization\">fertilization<\/a>; (2) that induced abortion is the deliberate and unjust killing of the <a title=\"Embryo\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Embryo\">embryo<\/a> in violation of its right to life; and (3) that the law should prohibit unjust violations of the right to life.<\/p>\n<p>The view that abortion should in most or all circumstances be legal generally rests on the claims: (1) that women have a right to control what happens in and to their own bodies; (2) that abortion is a just exercise of this right; and (3) that the law should not criminalize just exercises of the right to control one\u2019s own body.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Personhood is the status of being a person. Sounds simple, right ? But defining personhood is a very controversial topic !! One needs to draw upon philosophy, anthropology, genetics, ethics as well as law to reach some conclusions. In law only a natural person or legal personality has rights, protections, privileges, responsibilities, and legal liability.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[288,289],"tags":[377,25],"class_list":["post-2101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-monthly-columns","category-word-of-the-month","tag-personhood","tag-prochoice"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/blog-featured-image-logo.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3O7nG-xT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2101"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2104,"href":"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2101\/revisions\/2104"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}