LETTER: How Should 'Person' Be Defined?

To the Editor: Politicians, theists and scientists have long argued the meaning of the word "person." The heart of the pro-life movement lies in the belief that the fetus is a person with rights that surpass the rights of the mother. Must a person be self-sufficient or viable to qualify as a person? Dogs and cats are viable; however we usually to not grant them the status of personhood. At last, we arrive at issues much deeper. The abortion debate asks the public to ponder such questions as: When does life begin? Does the fetus have a soul? Is it indeed a soul that makes a person, well . . . a person? The answers vary from religion to religion and from individual to individual. For this reason many people who call themselves pro-choice or pro-life will never agree on these issues because there is no unique answer. If the assumption that the fetus is a "person" had no basis, then pro-choice feminists are using the correct issue to "protest the unfair treatment and manipulation of women that persists." If a fetus has no rights as a "person," then forcing a woman to carry a pregnancy to term becomes a significant women's issue. With pregnancy women lose time and money in the workforce as well as face the added economic expense of pre-natal care. Women must endure the physical challenges of pregnancy. Raising the baby and obtaining child support become whole separate issues. On the other hand, women for whom the consequences of having a baby become unbearable face the dangerous health risks of unsafe, back-alley abortions. If a fetus has no rights beyond the mother, then pro-choice feminists champion a necessary issue in demanding abortion rights. Because there is no correct definition of what a person is or when life begins, the pro-choice movement, similar to the pro-life movement, transcends gender issues. For many pro-choice supporters, the debate becomes one of spiritual freedom and individual freedom. Does government have the right to legislate abortion when the idea of the fetus as a person with rights is not a universal truth but rather an individual belief? In any event, the association between pro-choice and pro-woman remains linked because women are the "people" who stand the most to lose or gain by the abortion issue. EMMA LARKIN College senior