We now know that species like dolphins and great apes have rich mental and emotional lives, with enduring social bonds. Today counter examples, like the astounding escapades of Stoffel the honey badger, go viral on the internet. As late as the 1960’s, children were taught that one hard line between humans and other species was that only humans use tools. Research on the mental life of nonhuman animals was pioneered by ethologist Konrad Lorenz during the years before World War II. Bioethicists and other scholars came together to discuss the self-conscious intelligence that can be present to varying degrees in nonhuman species. Last December, Yale University hosted a conference called Personhood Beyond the Human. Back here in the real world, our relationship to other species also prompts conversation about the nature and boundaries of personhood.
The now classic movie, Blade Runner, which is laden with religious allusions, explores themes of yearning for life and love in robots who are keenly aware of their own pre-programmed mortality.ĭogs and Honey Badgers. House of the Scorpion explores the identity and rights of a child who is the product of cloning.
#ANOTHER WORD FOR ISSUE AT HAND MOVIE#
The movie District 9, for example, extrapolates South Africa’s apartheid policies and explores questions around dignity and compassion for an alien species stranded on earth. Science fiction stories like E.T., Star Wars, or Wall-e may evoke our personhood intuitions simply for the purpose of entertainment, but some books and films use science fiction to explore more serious moral conundrums. Those traits, or some cluster of them, are the decisive features in personhood and yet they’re not conceptually identical with “humanity.” we recognize we’re talking to another person. If we are talking to an alien who has self-awareness, makes choices, has complex emotional experiences, plans future projects, has enduring memories, etc. If an extraterrestrial comes down to earth and asks to use the phone, we shouldn’t say, You’re not human, so instead of letting you use the phone, we’re just going to eat you. Philosopher Dan Fincke points to science fiction to illustrate the point: In the secular philosophical traditions that have long informed our laws, personhood means something more complicated and more interesting than mere human DNA. To win, they have to equate personhood with human life. In recent years, Personhood USA and conservative Christian allies have been building case law and regulatory precedents with this goal in mind. The set of legal arguments that support abortion rights would not disappear but they would shrink. In other words, if an embryo or fetus can be defined legally as a person, then abortion could potentially be classified as murder and a host of other legal rights could accrue to the developing fetus. Personhood USA is driven by a mission that dates back to Roe v Wade, when, in the process of legalizing abortion, Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun made this comment: “If this suggestion of personhood is established, the appellant’s case, of course, collapses, for the fetus’ right to life would then be guaranteed specifically by the Amendment.” Are they interchangeable? Does it matter? Online coaching tools for abortion opponents use the term person interchangeably with human or human being. What does it mean to be a person? For the anti-abortion group, Personhood USA, a “person” is present from the moment a sperm penetrates an egg, and members are fighting to have their definition encoded into law.
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