A SELECTION FROM
WHEN
IS A PERSON?
PRE-PERSONS
& FORMER PERSONS
VI.
PRE-PERSONS
We began this book by asking when a child
becomes an adult.
And we noted in that discussion that the exact age of transition
depends on who is drawing the line and for what purpose.
The same will happen when we attempt to draw the line
between pre-persons and full persons:
Just when we cease being pre-persons and become full persons
will depend on who is drawing the line and for what purpose.
The parents of a fetus (and later baby)
are the logical ones to draw any lines that might be needed.
Adults have more complicated relationships than children,
which makes it more difficult to create their MCDCs.
But very early in life, the main adults involved are the parents.
The two people who created a new human being
should make all decisions about that human being.
The focus of this book asking “When is a
person?”
has been on empirical, observable facts.
The line between personhood and former personhood
is drawn by looking for the four capacities of persons:
consciousness, memory, language, & autonomy.
But some people prefer a metaphysical concept
of person.
This would depend more on definitions than on observations.
For example, we could define a fetus as a person
because it has the potential to develop into a full person.
Such speculations will be left to others.
Here we will ask about the personhood of
fetuses
with the same questions we used to examine the personhood of adults
and of individuals who might have become former persons:
Does the fetus have consciousness, memory, language, & autonomy?
In the four major sections of this book,
we did mention the emergence of consciousness
and self-consciousness in children,
when children begin to show signs of memory,
when they develop language abilities,
and when they are autonomous enough to assume some responsibilities.
Every parent knows about the emergence of these capacities.
62 WHEN IS A
PERSON? PRE-PERSONS & FORMER
PERSONS by JAMES PARK
When infants are born defective—missing some of these potentialities—
the doctors and the parents will have to assess
the likely level of future functioning for that
child.
Deciding whether or not to treat a defective newborn
might be the context in which to ask: “Is this newborn a person?”
The 200 questions included in this book
can easily be adapted to the situation of a fetus or a newborn.
For example, Is the fetus conscious and/or self-conscious?
Does the fetus show any signs of remembering anything?
Does the fetus understand and use language?
Does the fetus have plans it will later put into effect?
We might decide after asking many of
these questions
that a fetus is similar in personhood
to an adult who has fallen into a persistent vegetative state:
(1) It is not conscious of itself.
(2) It has little to remember.
(3) Its language ability must be at a very rudimentary level.
(4) And a fetus has no plans for the future—no autonomy.
But the basic difference between grandpa in a
coma
and a fetus in the womb is that the fetus has more potential
to become a full and functioning person.
As this book did not offer generic principles
for distinguishing full persons from former persons,
neither will it offer simple tests
to separate pre-persons from full persons.
This is a task for the parents to undertake
—applying their metaphysical views if they wish.
This book merely offers a couple of hundred empirical questions
that might be helpful in making subtle distinctions if needed.
The reason for discussing adults before babies
is that we can be more reasonable about ourselves and other adults.
But once we have decided when to pull our own plugs,
we can be more rational about pulling the plugs for our children.
We can apply the Golden Rule:
If we would not want to be kept ‘alive’ as former persons,
how will we choose for fetuses who will never become persons?
Pre-Persons
WHEN IS A
PERSON?
by James Park 63
The two pages quoted above come from the 2009
edition of
When
Is a Person?
Pre-Persons & Former Persons by James Park.
The complete table of contents will appear if you click the title above.
The page numbers appear at the bottoms of the pages.
Several words have bold face in the printed version.
These additional features do not appear in this Internet version.
Created
11-6-2008; Revised 1-17-2009