Friday, June 9, 2017

The Personhood of A Zygote

Scientifically a Zygote is a person. Person means an individual entity. A zygote is growing rapidly and made up of it's own (human) organic material; this would mean that, by definition, it is  human person.  When arguing about person hood in regard to abortion, the pro-choice side claims that yes, by definition, a Zygote is a person but it does not have the moral value of one. This is claim is not scientific but comes from the realm of philosophy .To be a person means that you deserve moral consideration.
Some people claim person hood is based on the morality or innocence of the individual or that person hood is right that can be forfeited by gruesome violations such as rape and murder. This is how many people justify the death penalty. This perception of person hood protects the unborn because they are the most innocent of all of us. There is another criterion for person hood called "Genetic Criterion" which states that you are a person if you have specifically human DNA. Most people disregard this criterion because it excludes other animals from moral consideration but includes corpses and sperm persons.Another criterion for person hood is called the"Cognitive Criterion." It consists of five factors .
  1. Consciences 
  2. Reasoning
  3. Self-Motivated Activity
  4. Capacity to Communicate
  5. Self Awareness
This criterion excludes infants from person hood. An infant isn't self aware until at the minimum, eighteen months. I think that even pro choicers can agree that to kill an infant would be morally wrong. Another criteria is the Social Criterion which states that you are a person that deserves moral consideration when and if someone cares about you. This makes person hood the ultimate popularity contest. And in the unlikely and unfortunate event that no cares about said person their status as a part of a moral community would be stripped under this criterion. It gives society the right to decide whether or not you are  moral being.
The philosopher Peter Singer says that the key to person hood is sentience. The ability to suffer gives a being it's ticket to being deserving of moral consideration.This idea confuses experience from action. A person in a coma might not experience the harm being done to them, but they would none the less have harm done to them which would be morally wrong in most cases, especially if they wake up from the coma. As an unborn child would. Let alone, kill the said person while in their comatose state when they had a chance of waking up.
A newer theory of person hood is the Gradient Theory of Person hood which argues that person hood comes in degrees.  Even though this theory is usually only applied to unborn children it is meant for all people.So I would ask; There is mother and her (born) baby, do you think one has less value?

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