Personhood
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What makes a person a person? Does a fetus qualify?
Im asking for people just to work hard to get some clarity on this issue. Its not that hard. If Ive heard this once, Ive heard it a dozen times: “This is a difficult issue. Its a confusing issue. Its hard to come to a real, proper understanding.” The abortion issue is not a difficult issue. It is not a confusing issue. It is a very simple issue when it comes to the facts themselves. And Im trying to urge people to have some clarity based on what is true here and what is moral and right; not based on what we want for ourselves. Thats what makes these kind of issues complicated. The truth is self-evident but we dont like what is true because it makes a moral demand upon us, and that moral demand frequently is uncomfortable and inconveniencing. When we face discomfort and inconvenience, then we want to change the rules; and we try to change the rules by using contorted, disfigured arguments and we claim that its a difficult issue. Its not difficult at all.
The abortion issue is not a difficult issue. It is not a confusing issue. It is a very simple issue when it comes to the facts themselves.
I talked with a young lady last night who made the point that she thinks that. She used the illustration of snapshots. If you took a photo of the developing fetus at every stage of development you would see something different; therefore the fetus is a different thing at each different stage of development. Well, thats an idea, I guess. Thats a way of looking at it but it doesnt make any sense whatsoever. It doesnt mean because you can take a picture of me at six, and ten, and twelve, and twenty-four, and forty-four that I am somehow a different being. Im the same being talking on this show right now that graduated from Simon Greenleaf University two weeks ago, and graduated from York High School in 1968, even though I dont look the same as I did back then. I still have my girlish figure, but I look different.
Does that mean Im a different person? Im a different being? All these gradualism arguments fail because they dont have a clear fix on what it means for a thing to be a thing. It sounds like double talk, but its not double talk at all. Its very simple. A thing is itself and not something else, and it remains itself as long as it exists.
I am Greg Koukl. I was Greg Koukl when I was born, and Ill be Greg Koukl when I die. I am Greg Koukl from beginning to end. I am Greg Koukl the whole time through even though my body changes form. Beings dont transform into different beings. They are what they are.
When does an acorn become an oak? Well, no one knows for sure. Of course we do! An acorn never becomes an oak. An acorn is an oak. Period. Thats what an acorn is. Its an oak in immature form. It can become a mature oak tree. But young or old, its an oak. This is not a matter of opinion, folks. When we get down to it, acorn doesnt describe what a thing is, in a sense; it describes the stage of development of that particular thing. Its kind of like asking what is a teenager? Well, a teenager isnt a particular thing, like there is a being called teenager. What a teenager is a description of the stage of development of the human being. It is a human at a certain age. An acorn is an oak at a certain age. And a fetus is a human being at a certain age.
If a person