By Randall Smith, The Catholic Thing - A common defense of abortion is that the developing fetus within a mother’s womb, although clearly a “human being” – not a fish or a reptile, as the DNA and chromosomes clearly indicate – is not yet a “person.” Used this way, the term person identifies a certain class of human being we have judged as deserving of our moral concern and protection, distinguishing these from others we have decided do not.