If a homo-sapiens fetus is not considered a person, are there other types of homo-sapiens not considered to have person-hood? If so what are they?
There are other human beings not considered to have personhood.
Not that I agree with the current status of things. But bigoted people have denied the personhood of lots of other people. If all people had equal personhood, you would expect countries that have ratified the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to obey it, which is clearly not the case. Secret illegal prisons in the United States are a crime against humanity, but the government ignores it by claiming the prisonners are not real human beings. The same excuse was used to justify racial segregation in the US and Japan, and concentration camps in Nazi Germany. And, curiously, there are some minorities that appear to live outside the law of most developped countries. You can murder an autistic kid without ever going to prison, and it is not clear whether the opposite is true or not (although autistic adults are usually not violent), but 'autism' clearly does not figure on the list of minorities protected by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Posted by: NetworkI Believe So
Humanity doesn't automatically translate to personhood. In any case where we have a complete absence of a mind there can't really be said to be a real person present. Fetuses are one example of humans who don't qualify as persons, and I believe that braindead individuals and those who are so debilitated by mental retardation or disease that they are essentially plants also fail the test of personhood.
Posted by: AdelaiRickman
Absolutely no! Awareness should not be a prerequisite to humanhood!
Many of the lefts opinions on what constitutes a "human" is self awareness. So is an unconscious person not a human? Is a sleeping person not a human? Of course not. Just because a fetus may not have conscious awareness, it is developing towards that state of being and thus should be treated as a human being.
Posted by: DaffypuckI personally consider all homo-sapiens to have personhood.
But I want to know what the other side thinks. I always hear people saying a fetus is not a person, so I wonder what else is not a person.
Things I think some may say do not have personhood follow.
-humans in comas
-humans who are legally dead but can be revived
-humans who are brain dead
-humans who lack brain function
-humans on life support
-humans who are born but not fully developedPosted by: Mathgeekjoe