Persons vs. Human Beings, by Randall Smith

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.

Used this way, the term “person” delimits a crucial boundary – the boundary between “us” (those with the dignity and status the term implies and bestows) and “them” (those from whom that status is to be denied). …