Question

What is a person? offer a reasoned account of what it means to be a person. In order to clarify this gives an example of something (besides a fetus) that does not count as a person and explain why it is not a person.

What about persons makes it wrong to kill them? What characteristics, qualities, relationships, etc. makes it wrong to kill a person? Draw an ethical theory as answering these questions.

Is the fetus a person? If so, give an explanation of why a fetus satisfies the definition. If not, explain what you think a fetus is and why, and then, explain whether a fetus has a right to not be killed.

Answer 1

Ans.)A person is a human being with its own thinking capacity. There is a quite a difference in being a creature or a person. A creature is just a living being who completes its life cycle without thinking about others. But on the other hand, a person has its own intellect to perceive and understand the things. A person has certain attributes such as reason, morality, self-consciousness and being a part of a society that is culturally established form of community relations such as kinship, ownership of property with legal responsibility.

Of course, not all the human are person. A human being is a psychosomatic entity that is a union of human flesh but without human spirit and consciousness. Human is kind of criminal, who does not have any feelings towards fellow humans and is ready to kill others at the drop of a hat, is certainly not behaving as a person.

It is quite difficult to suggest weather a fetus is a person or not. If a fetus was not born it cannot be considered a being because it has no physical existence outside the female. Up until close to birth, the fetus is not entirely developed and does not yet obtain all the essential qualities to being a person such as the ability to be self-aware. A fetus is not aware of it and cannot relate itself to its surroundings. So, a fetus does not have the ability to formulate rational thought and decision making, which is vital for being a person. We have to rely on our decisions to get us through like and a fetus is unable to make any decisions regarding itself.

In my opinion, a fetus is not a person until it is fully developed and born. It has not experienced life and is much like a parasite until it's born, living off of the nutrients in the blood of its host. Decision of killing of fetus is totally depend on the mother.

Ethically, it is wrong to kill a fetus but if we talk about rights of fetus, then there is no such things. All the rights of fetus belong to the women, carrying it.