Bestowed by who? Who is this objective (not subjective) arbiter that has decided for every single person who was, is, and is to be born that personhood begins at live birth?
And you're saying that you need to see the child come out of the womb before you consider the child to be a person? At 8 months pregnant, you don't consider the child inside the womb to be a person?
Which again leads to my question that you conveniently didn't answer... If aborthion instantly became illegal, would you then instantly change your view on the topic and consider abortion to be murder, even though a moment ago it wasn't murder?
Also, do you form your worldview around every single Canadian law that gets passed? You have no objective personal beliefs which differ from Canadian law? Seems rather odd to me...
Obviously you and I have opposing worldviews and morals.
Do you believe that your moral standards and worldviews are superior to Scrabaholic’s, or perhaps even mine, because they might oppose yours? There’s so many different individual moral and worldviews subscribed to, that they probably can’t be numerically defined.
I value the born over the yet to be born, regardless of any laws that are applicable to abortion and/or reproduction. Humanity is not an endangered species. But if it was and every woman on the planet declared that they would never reproduce again. I would respect and support their decision.
About “Personhood”...
Open up your Constitutional Hymn Book and scan over the Bill of Rights. While it doesn’t specifically define the individual characteristics necessary to qualify as a person (as related to “personhood” itself) it does state who qualifies for all of the rights and privileges contained in the Constitution: “PERSONS BORN within the jurisdiction of the United States of America.
Additionally, Congress has defined the specific criteria necessary to qualify as “a person”:
1 U.S. Code › Title 1 › Chapter 1 › § 8
Person”, “human being”, “child”, and “individual” as including born-alive infant
(a) In determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, or of any ruling, regulation, or interpretation of the various administrative bureaus and agencies of the United States, the words “person”, “human being”, “child”, and “individual”, shall include every infant member of the species homo sapiens who is born alive at any stage of development.
(b) As used in this section, the term “born alive”, with respect to a member of the species homo sapiens, means the complete expulsion or extraction from his or her mother of that member, at any stage of development, who after such expulsion or extraction breathes or has a beating heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord, or definite movement of voluntary muscles, regardless of whether the umbilical cord has been cut, and regardless of whether the expulsion or extraction occurs as a result of natural or induced labor, cesarean section, or induced abortion.
(c) Nothing in this section shall be construed to affirm, deny, expand, or contract any legal status or legal right applicable to any member of the species homo sapiens at any point prior to being “born alive” as defined in this section.
(Added Pub. L. 107–207, § 2(a), Aug. 5, 2002, 116 Stat. 926.)
You can claim that the definition/characteristics of person “is subjective”, but they were created long before Congress published these characteristics in Federal Code. - but we are a nation ruled by law.
You have the right to disagree with a law. We all have that right. But if we choose to violate a law then we do so consciously knowing that we will be subject to consequences. When persons inside our government attempt to use their given power to oppress individuals or a specific group within our national society - outside of the parameters of the law - then they need to be subject to consequences.
“Currently, the charge of murder” applies to born persons with the exceptions stated in the “Unborn Victims Act”. A special definition was created for the yet to be born for the purpose of creating and enforcing the provisions stated in the language of the law. Women who have legal abortions are excluded from legal consequences.
