SPF
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The "ultimate" question is certainly not "when does a fetus become a person". The attempt to create a distinction between a human being and a human person is only done by those who want to permit some action that would otherwise be considered immoral against the non-person.Except science hasn't made it so clear as you seem to think when it comes to exactly when human life begins.
"The ultimate question is, when does a fetus become a person—at fertilization, at birth, or somewhere in between? Here, modern science offers no clarity. If anything, the past century of scientific advances have only made the answer more complicated. As scientists have peered into wombs with ultrasound and looked directly at sperm entering an egg, they’ve found that all the bright lines they thought existed dissolving." Why Science Can't Say When a Baby's Life Begins
Certainly a potential life begins at conception, but is that fertilized egg a person? Fifty to 80 percent of fertilized eggs fail to implant, and even some implanted embryos spontaneously abort. "Assuming that fertilization and implantation all go perfectly, scientists can reasonably disagree about when personhood begins, says Gilbert. An embryologist might say gastrulation, which is when an embryo can no longer divide to form identical twins. A neuroscientist might say when one can measure brainwaves."
Likewise, "“many scientists would say they don’t know when life begins. There are a series of landmark moments,” said Arthur Caplan, professor and founding head of the Division of Medical Ethics at New York University Langone Medical Center. “The first is conception, the second is the development of the spine, the third the development of the brain, consciousness, and so on.” That perspective, it turns out, has deep roots. It’s also one that resonates for many pregnant women who experience the embryo’s gradual passage to personhood on a visceral level." When Does Life Begin? Outside the Christian Right, the Answer Is “Over Time.”
Personhood is an entirely subjective, arbitrary, and made up distinction that varies based upon the subjective notions of whoever is making the claim. That's why you'll find so many people disagreeing over when a human being becomes a human person - first trimester, second trimester, beating heart, feel pain, consciousness, etc etc... All subjective and arbitrary points during the development of the human being.
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