Pro-life Conservatives

Pro-life conservatives usually emphasize tests such as genetic code (which is formed at conception) or ensoulment (which is supposed to occur at or shortly after conception). In contrast, pro-choice liberals usually employ tests such as viability (which is reached during the second trimester) or ra- tionality (which comes sometime after birth, depending on what counts as rationality—ability to choose and plan, self-consciousness, and so on). Thus, the personhood of fetuses during the first trimester is usually asserted by conservatives and denied by liberals on this issue.

How can we determine whether a feature is necessary or sufficient for per- sonhood? We can start by rejecting any test of personhood that leads to implau- sible results. Pro-life conservatives argue that rationality is not necessary for personhood, because, whatever rationality is, newborn babies and severely re- tarded adults are not rational, but it is still morally wrong to kill them. Other tests of personhood are ruled out because they do not seem important enough. Pro-choice liberals argue that a certain genetic code is not sufficient to make something a person, because there is no reason to favor one genetic code over another except that it later produces other important features, such as rational- ity. It is also common to rule out a test of personhood if we cannot know when the test is passed. For example, many people reject ensoulment as a criterion of personhood, because they see no way to tell when, if ever, a fetus has a soul. And tests of personhood are also often rejected if they depend on factors that are extraneous. Conservatives often argue that viability cannot be a test of per- sonhood, because the point when a fetus can survive outside the womb de- pends on what technology happens to be available to doctors at the time.