Just what does it take to be a “person”?

Recently in Mesa County we have seen the case where a child born early due to trauma to the mother and who lived only a short time has been declared not to have been yet a person. And that has got me wondering about this issue especially since we now have another case where a mother is murdered and the child, delivered two weeks before the due date, lived only a short while. She did live long enough to have a name, Maria, and now is mourned by family members however. Was she a person?

I wonder how long someone must draw breath to be a person? Perhaps a smart judge will be able to help with this question. An hour? Two hours? A day? Three days? A month? More? Does one have to draw a breath to be a person? The kicking and moving unborn child that can be killed even during the process of birth, seems to be denied that designation.

I think of other examples of non-personhood. It has been said that if someone is declared not a person, then they can be killed. The Native Americans in this country were essentially declared non-persons. So war was made on them to exterminate them and take their land. And the African peoples stolen from their homeland to be worked as slaves were not considered persons but property to be done with as an owner decided. So there are indeed other examples of when some segments of our human race can be judged to not be human and their lives of no value. They were considered not to be persons and so could be used or destroyed.

There are cultures in this world presently where a child born can be left to die or can be killed at the will of another. Some might call that infanticide. Yet it happens. The world at large is not very good at defending the most defenseless among us. Whole countries will go to war over such things as oil or power or even religion but the war against the defenseless continues with few voices crying to defend them. They are not really persons some will say. And so more of these defenseless ones die every day than were killed in the tragedy of September 11. More unborn Americans die daily than have given their lives in the conflict in Iraq. Is that OK because some deem them “non-persons”? So just what does it take to be considered a person?

LINDA O’BRIEN
Grand Junction

This entry was posted on Monday, April 7th, 2008 at 3:40 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.