Category Archives: Personhood

A place to talk about what a person is.

Abortion, Organ Donation, Personhood

Personhood -What Do Organ Donation & Abortion Have In Common?

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Do organ donation and abortion have something in common?  This may seem like an odd question.  But the question does arise when one considers both organ donation and abortion in light of personhood or in light of what it means to be a person.

Many Christians reject abortion from the point of conception, citing conception as the beginning of a person’s life.  Some pro-abortion people accept abortion in the early stages of pregnancy claiming that the embryo/fetus in early pregnancy is not yet a person. … Read the rest

Organ Donation, Personhood

Personhood and Organ Donation

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In the blog titled Personhood-the-most-important-question-today I raised the question with respect to Vital Organ Donation, “Does vital organ procurement result in the death of the person?  Or is the person somehow separate from the body, such that the person can be dead and the body still alive?”

In blogs titled Personhood-What Is It? and Personhood-Image of God, I said that persons are specially created by God.  Persons are the image of God.  Persons are united body and soul.  A persons special status begins at conception and continues until death, at which time the body returns to the dust and the soul goes to God.… Read the rest

I Believe, Personhood

Personhood – Image of God

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In my blog post Personhood-What Is It, I said that to have personhood, is to have the intrinsic value of a human being with all the rights and responsibilities that go along with being human.

The Christian worldview, the worldview of the Bible, holds that God, with the creation of mankind, gives mankind special intrinsic value.  A name for this intrinsic value, in modern language, is personhood.  Mankind is created in a special way that is different from animals.  Genesis 1:26-27 says,

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 

… Read the rest
End of Life, Euthanasia, Personhood

Euthanasia – Definition – Human

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Before considering the relationship of euthanasia to personhood, it is important to consider what I mean by euthanasia.

I am using the following definition of euthanasia:

Euthanasia involves a person (or persons) actively ending the life of another person, for what are considered compassionate reasons, with consent of (or by request of) the person or a person who is the appropriate decision maker for the person whose life is being ended.

Euthanasia involves the taking of a life for what are considered compassionate reasons.  … Read the rest