Choice

The people of Mississippi have taken to the polls to see how the citizens of that state would define a person.

Mississippi is voting on a proposed constitutional amendment that would make it the first US state to define a fertilized human egg as a person. 

The measure would confer rights on an embryo from the moment of conception, effectively outlawing abortion, even in cases of rape and incest. 

A survey found that that 45% of voters in Mississippi backed the measure, 44% were against, and 11% undecided.

Abortion is a very touchy issue with passionate supporters and wing-nuts on both sides of the issue. I am personally against abortion. I do believe it is murder and that a human fetus is still human and therefore a person deserving of protection.

But there are many who believe that this is an erroneous view to hold.

In having discussed the issue with a few people (its hard to have a civil discussion concerning abortion) a lot of the justifications for abortion that I've encountered have come down to the notion that if the fetus was left on its own it would not survive and therefore is not a person.

I find this logic to be very flawed. 

For instance, if we were to take this as the measure for how we determine who is and who isn't a human being, then there are vast swathes of people that would have no legal protections. A new born infant, whether one second or one year after birth cannot support itself. A person who is in a coma cannot support it his/her-self. These are just two examples, but should these people be denied legal protection as persons? Of course not, to do so would be absurd, and so we get to the crux of the matter. 

When is a person a person?

There are varying thoughts on this. For some its the moment of conception. For others its the moment that the baby is 'born' (this is the case in Canada). For still others its the moment that a woman decides that what is growing in her is a person (if a pregnant woman is murdered and her baby dies often the killer is charged with two crimes, one for the woman and one for the baby she was carrying). For still others its "the point of fetal viability" (this is the case in the US).

Which is it?

At what point do we decide that a human fetus is a 'person'?

For me, its the moment of conception. Human life is sacred and it deserves protection.