Is a Fetus Really a Person?
Scientific Facts from a Christian Neurosurgeon
At the young age of 35, Dr. Timothy Cheves is a force of nature. He’s earned multiple doctoral degrees from Yale University, Emory University, University of Arizona and Butler University. He’s worked in 15 hospitals and eight clinics, including a long-term stint fighting COVID in NYC at the height of the pandemic. Tim has also completed an estimated 64,000 patient visits, and he now serves as a neurosurgeon in Tucson, Arizona.
Roger and Julie have known Tim since he was a young kid, growing up at Casas Church with Roger as his pastor. He is our guest author for “Ask Roger” this week, along with some additional content added by Brie Barrier Wetherbee. Please note that Tim included some excellent references within his arguments. They are listed at the bottom of this article along with some further recommended resources.
Hi Roger and Tim,
In my heart, I know that abortion is wrong. I see babies move on sonograms; I even spent time in the NICU when my daughter was born at 29 weeks. That’s barely in the third trimester. I can’t imagine how people can make the argument that she—or any other pre-born child—isn’t really a person. My daughter was and is. I want to be able to talk about abortion with truth and compassion, not emotion and anger. Will you help me?
Love,
Eva
Hi Eva,
This is Tim. I recently sought to answer whether abortion could be morally and ethically acceptable, focusing on the concepts of personhood and human rights.
My goal was to determine whether personhood and the associated human rights apply to a fetus. To approach this, I believe a stepwise method is essential. First, for abortion to be morally wrong, a fetus must possess the right to life. For a fetus to have a right to life, it must first be shown to be a person. And to be considered a person, it must be established as a living human being.
This creates four fundamental questions in which the arguments for or against abortion hinge:
Is the fetus a living human being?
Is it a person?
Does it have a right to life?
Can we morally take away that right?
Let’s begin:
1) Does an unborn fetus qualify as a living human being?
For something to be deemed “alive,” biologists came up with seven characteristics that must be met. It is with these same characteristics that astronomers look for life on other planets, botanists look for life in phytology, and microbiologists look for life on their slides.
While some resources only call for the presence of metabolism and motion, most others call for seven postulations which can vary in terminology. (1,2) A living thing must (3):
– be composed of a cell or cells
– have order
– utilize energy
– grow and develop
– have reproductive potential
– respond to their environment
– adapt to that environment.
Without going into great detail (as this is not the overall aim here), I find even a zygote, the unicellular antecedent to a fetus, fulfills all these stipulations.
One could argue that a fetus has no reproductive potential, however, by just 16 weeks a female fetus not only has formed genitalia, but her own oocytes. (4) The fetus is indeed alive, even at the start of fertilization. In fact, it is this moment that in vitro fertilization (IVF) specialists try to re-create. It isn’t the isolation of the sperm or ovum. It isn’t creating a multi-cellular blastocyst. It’s the moment of conception they work toward. Without it, there is no life. With it, there is life instantaneously. A functioning, living sperm meeting with a functioning, living ovum can only do one thing: continue that life as a functioning, living human.
Now that we know when life begins, turning this biology-related debate into more of a philosophical one where the question now asks, “Is this a person”?
2) Does the fetus qualify as a “person”?
In the context of abortion, personhood is the defining requirement for individual rights. A Princeton philosopher, Peter Singer, holds the view that abortion is acceptable since the fetus is not a person, which he defines as someone who is rational, conscious, and self-aware. (5)
However, this definition is severely lacking. Under this definition, every time I go to bed at night, I cease to be a person. When someone is stressed in traffic and drives unsafely in a moment of irrational thought, they too cease to be a person. No, Singer’s definition lacks consideration of the nature of the entity in question.
An embryo can’t rationalize, be conscious, or self-aware (at that moment), but that’s due to how old it is, not what it is. An amoeba, on the other hand, can’t exhibit any of these sentient aspects either; not because it hasn’t developed them yet, but because it’s not in its nature to. With the embryo, it is in its nature to rationalize, be conscious, and self-aware.
After the atrocities of the Holocaust, the United Nations proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (6) Along with the preamble, which states human rights are the “rights of all members of the human family”, Article 3 explains “Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person.” Article 6 declares “Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.” Lastly, Article 7 says “All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law.”
The fact that you are human automatically assigns you human rights. When speaking of animal rights, the necessary requirement is to be an animal. Women’s rights call for the person to be a woman. Would it not logically follow that all that’s needed for human rights is for you to be human? Therefore, it is what you are that defines your personhood (and human rights) not when (how old) you are.
However, one can easily argue a separate definition of personhood altogether. I found many to consider the fetus void of personhood by defining a person as someone who displays intentional, goal driven action. (7) This agent must show deliberate action in line with their own reflection and desires.
Nevertheless, science shows a fetus to fulfill this definition as well. By 14 weeks, the unborn child shows goal-driven movements. As the limbs reach its target, there is marked deceleration; a hallmark of intentional action. Other studies show an exploratory and sensation seeking nature of the child as early as 10 weeks’ gestation. (9)
Using real time ultrasonography, researchers saw the lips, cheeks, ears, and parietal bone (areas rich in innervation) frequently being touched by the hands (also richly innervated). Fetuses were also observed to explore the boundary between innervated and non-innervated regions of the developing body. As the nervous system grows and boundary lines change, so too does fetal exploration of these boundaries. Even with the new definition of personhood, findings show fetal humans to be persons.
Yet, what of the mother’s rights? Isn’t it her body, isn’t the fetus part of her body?
3) Does the fetus have a right to life?
Some argue because the baby is grown inside, dependent on, and therefore part of the mother, she has her own human rights that supersede that of the baby’s. Along these same lines, another argument has also been made: The fetus is not attacked by the mother’s immune system; therefore, it must BE the mother’s body.
Normally, when someone has a foreign body in them, their immune system is activated to fight it off. If the fetus is a biologically separate entity, then wouldn’t it be destroyed as well? We all know this not to happen, so we may conclude that the fetus is, in fact, not its own biologically separate entity. These are fair arguments, but, again, ones that science does not support.
The answer lies in a structure called the decidua. Along with the fetus having its own separated blood supply, unique DNA, digestive system, et cetera; the decidua is a specialized protective layer around the fetus functioning to blind the mother’s immune response. The presence of the baby literally changes the cells’ genes in this area to inactivate the inflammatory markers that bring about immune response. (10) When this decidua is defective, the mother’s immune cells will attack.
This proves the fetus to be its own entity; from, not of, the mother. As such, the baby has his or her own rights (rights professed and upheld by the United Nations) that are to be held at the same level of the mother.
4) Is it morally acceptable to take that right away?
Going back to our stepwise argument, the unborn child fits the seven characteristics of life used by all scientific disciplines. The child also attains personhood, found not only in what they are, but in exhibiting goal driven actions. In consequence, the child is worthy of human rights by definition of personhood, as well as the defining proclamations given to the world by the United Nations. With life, personhood, and human rights status achieved, the only rational conclusion to the abortion debate is this:
It is morally and ethically wrong in every stage of life. It steals away the individual’s innate human rights, objectifies the personhood out of the individual, and dehumanizes an unmistakable human being.
Eva, this is Brie. Now that Tim has shared some undeniable truths from science, I’d like to close with a corresponding biblical truth you may find helpful. I used to have tons of conversations with my dad (Roger) about how much our Creator God loves His creation.
Take a look at one of our favorite Scripture passages:
For You made the parts inside me. You put me together inside my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for the greatness of the way I was made brings fear. Your works are great and my soul knows it very well. My bones were not hidden from You when I was made in secret and put together with care in the deep part of the earth.Your eyes saw me before I was put together. And all the days of my life were written in Your book before any of them came to be. (Psalm 139:13-16)
This absolutely blows my mind. The infinite God of the universe, the one who placed the stars in space and molded the mountains with His hands, knows every part of you and me before we’re born. He knit us together. He planned every day of our lives.
We have exceptional worth in His eyes … and so should every child, born or unborn.
Well, Eva,
I hope that this article helps you understand more about the personhood of the pre-born … and gives you helpful ways to discuss this extremely difficult issue with family and friends. May God bless your words!
Love,
Roger, Tim, and Brie
Citations:
1. McKay CP. What Is Life—and How Do We Search for It in Other Worlds? PLoS Biology. 2004;2(9):e302. doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0020302
2. Phoenix Mars Mission – Education – Mars 101 – Habitability and Biology. Arizona.edu. Published 2019. http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/mars141.php
3. NASA Astrobiology. astrobiology.nasa.gov. https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/…/characteristics-of-life/
4. Hill M. Timeline human development – Embryology. Unsw.edu.au. Published 2018. https://embryology.med.unsw.edu.au/…/Timeline_human…
5. Marquis D, Singer P. Abortion and Infanticide: A Critique of Peter Singer’s Views – Princeton University Media Central. Media Central Princeton University. https://mediacentral.princeton.edu/media/Abortion and InfanticideA A Critique of Peter Singer%27s Views/1_440ax19m/13495602. Published March 29, 2006. Accessed October 26, 2017.
6. United Nations. Universal Declaration of Human Rights. United Nations. Published December 10, 1948. https://www.un.org/…/universal-declaration-of-human-rights
7. Martin J, Sugarman JH, Hickinbottom S, Springerlink (Online Service. Persons: Understanding Psychological Selfhood and Agency. Springer New York; 2010.
8. Castiello U, Becchio C, Zoia S, et al. Wired to Be Social: The Ontogeny of Human Interaction. Rustichini A, ed. PLoS ONE. 2010;5(10):e13199. doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0013199
9. Piontelli A, Springerlink (Online Service. Development of Normal Fetal Movements : The First 25 Weeks of Gestation. Springer Milan; 2010.
10. Nancy P, Tagliani E, Tay CS, Asp P, Levy DE, Erlebacher A. Chemokine Gene Silencing in Decidual Stromal Cells Limits T Cell Access to the Maternal-Fetal Interface. Science. 2012;336(6086):1317-1321. doi:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1220030