{"id":49,"date":"2008-12-03T12:02:53","date_gmt":"2008-12-03T12:02:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/tonyjones\/2008\/12\/comment-of-the-day-5.html"},"modified":"2008-12-03T12:02:53","modified_gmt":"2008-12-03T12:02:53","slug":"comment-of-the-day-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/2008\/12\/comment-of-the-day-5.html","title":{"rendered":"Comment of the Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s a really fascinating string of comments under Tuesday’s post, Are You an MIE (Multi-Issue Evangelical)?<\/a> regarding abortion.  It’s hard to pick just one comment, but RJohnson’s stood out to me as particularly thoughtful:<\/p>\n

\n

“A fetus should not legally be considered a living person until it has brain activity.”<\/p>\n

Realize that there seems to be a confusion of terms here. As I see
\nit, “personhood” is a legal status conferred by the laws of our nation.
\nIt was withheld from African slaves and their descendants until a
\nseries of Constitutional amendments and related laws were passed by the
\npeople and their Congress. It was withheld from women until similar
\nevents happened. And at this point it is withheld from unborn children.<\/p>\n

Humanity is a scientifically defined status based on the genetic
\nmakeup of the individual in question. In this case the unborn child is
\nhuman from the moment of conception, just as the unborn dog is canine
\nfrom conception, the unborn cat a feline, etc.<\/p>\n

Science can certainly validate the humanity of an unborn child, and
\nany unbiased observer of an unborn child after, say, 2 or 3 months of
\ngestation would say that the unborn child is certainly human. Science
\ncannot grant personhood under the law. No observation of the child can
\nbe made to determine personhood. Just as one could look at a black
\nslave in 1830 and say with certainty that he\/she was human, one could
\nlook at the same slave and say with certainty that he\/she was not a
\nperson under our laws.<\/p>\n

Rights, under our governmental system, are granted to persons, not
\nhumans. It may seem like pure semantics, but a study of history will
\nprove this. Pro-life advocates arguing that the unborn child has rights
\nbecause it is human are barking up the wrong tree. Personhood, not
\nhumanity, is the determinant that should be discussed.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s a really fascinating string of comments under Tuesday’s post, Are You an MIE (Multi-Issue Evangelical)? regarding abortion.  It’s hard to pick just one comment, but RJohnson’s stood out to me as particularly thoughtful: “A fetus should not legally be considered a living person until it has brain activity.” Realize that there seems to be…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":134,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment-of-the-day"],"yoast_head":"\nComment of the Day - The New Christians<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/2008\/12\/comment-of-the-day-5.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Comment of the Day - The New Christians\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There’s a really fascinating string of comments under Tuesday’s post, Are You an MIE (Multi-Issue Evangelical)? regarding abortion.  It’s hard to pick just one comment, but RJohnson’s stood out to me as particularly thoughtful: “A fetus should not legally be considered a living person until it has brain activity.” Realize that there seems to be…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/2008\/12\/comment-of-the-day-5.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The New Christians\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-12-03T12:02:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tony Jones\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Comment of the Day - The New Christians","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/2008\/12\/comment-of-the-day-5.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Comment of the Day - The New Christians","og_description":"There’s a really fascinating string of comments under Tuesday’s post, Are You an MIE (Multi-Issue Evangelical)? 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