The social construction of personhood.

Abstract

The current abortion controversy revolves around the opposing issues of a woman's self‐determination vs. the right of a fetus to be born. The thesis of this paper is that whether a fetus is aborted or delivered depends to a great degree on how social groups and individuals construct its nature. If the fetus is “constructed” as a person it will be born; if it is viewed as something elseitmaybe aborted. The paper examines how “person” is defined in philosophy, and how law and medicine have dealt with the humanfetus. A “vocabulary of motives” is discussed as well as what happens when personhood is withdrawn, the consequences of “depersonalization” as seen in slavery and the Holocaust. Finally, social characteristics and attitudes of the opposing groups who define the humanfetus as a person or as a thing are discussed.