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Not all philosophers believe that our concept of personhood is
clear enough to allow us to deduce whether the embryo or the fetus
is a person. It was never developed to do so.
Jane English, for example, has argued that our ordinary concept
of a person includes many different elements: biological, psychological,
rational, social, and legal. The way we mix the elements is subtle
and does not fall neatly into lists of necessary and/or sufficient
conditions. As a result, we cannot deduce an answer to our question
about the embryo/fetus.
English believes that in the abortion debates we tend to emphasize elements that include or exclude the fetus depending on our view of abortion.
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