Broad Definition of Person
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Philosopher Baruch Brody has attempted to determine whether the fetus is a "human being" (meaning roughly whether it has the moral status of a person). He argues that human beings have some properties that are essential. If a human being loses such a property, he or she ceases to be human.

Brody looks at the way we define death as a key to isolating these essential properties -- for in defining death we are asking what change constitutes the loss of our humanity. Such symptoms as irreversible loss of heart and brain functions are useful criteria of death. Therefore, he concludes, the emergence of a functioning heart and brain in the embryo or fetus mark its emergence as a human being. He estimates the time of emergence as somewhere between 2 weeks and 3 months.

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