Essays

When does a fetus become a person?

ASIM KURJAK ; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Medical School, University of Zagreb, Sveti Duh Hospital, Sveti Duh 64, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
ANA TIKVICA LEUTIC ; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Medical School, University of Zagreb, Sveti Duh Hospital, Sveti Duh 64, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
BERIVOJ MISKOVIC ; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Medical School, University of Zagreb, Sveti Duh Hospital, Sveti Duh 64, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
FRANK A. CHERVENAK ; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, USA

Abstract

One of the most controversial questions in modern medicine, bioethics
and science is dilemma about the fetus being a person. To discuss that questionone must first define personality. The list of necessary conditions for beinga person includes features like intelligence, self-awareness, self controletc. The infrastructures of those abilities reside in the cortex that is well developedfrom the 30th week of gestation. From that point of view, every neonateor fetus during the third trimester of gestation is a person, in a moral and ethical context. On the other hand, legal capacity is the ability of a natural
person to enjoy rights and obligations. The human being becomes a
natural person at the moment of birth. If human life is worth being protected by law only after delivery, for what reason does perinatology exist and perinatologists fight for? Lots of medical treatments, interventions and even surgeries during pregnancy are done for the benefit of the unborn, and not due to the mother’s health. From the legal perspective, it is better for a child to be born prematurely than at the right time, since from the moment of birth the child’s life is protected by law. From the medical point of view, this
must seem absurd, as the best environment for a child to develop is the mother’s womb during all nine months of the pregnancy. All the known evidence support the human fetus being a true ontological human individual and consequently a human person in fact if not in law.

Keywords

Beginning of human life; ethics; personality; legal protection; birth

Hrčak ID:

43412

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/43412

Publication date:

15.9.2009.

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