The Implications of "Personhood"

Apparently, a lot of people have criticized this candidate for sheriff’s insistence that he will use “deadly force” to stop an abortion in his county.   I can certainly see why you would criticize him if you reject the “personhood” thesis – the claim that a fetus is a full human person from the moment of conception.  However, if you accept that thesis, the candidate seems to be on solid moral ground.

Granted, he’s not on solid legal ground.  We have not (yet) decided, as a matter of law, that a fetus is a person entitled to all legal protections extended to persons – including prohibitions against being killed.  The fact that a candidate for sheriff is proposing to act contrary to current law is surely troubling.

But millions of people, including the Republican presidential and vice presidential candidates, are on record supporting the “personhood” thesis.  They want that thesis enshrined into U.S. law.  You would think that their criticism would be limited to his plan to use his office to impose his own moral views on others, as if his views were the law.  You would expect their criticism to focus on the importance of enforcing actual law, not one’s own convictions about what the law should be.

However, you should not expect any criticism of the sheriff candidate's stated willingness to use “deadly force” to protect “innocent persons” from slaughter – particularly when you, yourself, believe that this is what abortion constitutes.  If you accept the “personhood” thesis, as millions of Americans insist that they do, then using deadly force to protect innocent persons, including multi-celled zygote persons, makes perfect sense.

As Dr. Seuss taught us long ago, “a person is a person, no matter how small.”

Joe Huster