Personhood: Defining Humanity

"A philosophy of reason will define a human being as one which demonstrates self-awareness, volition and rationality. Thus it should be recognized that not all men are human." — Winston L. Duke, "The new biology", in Reason Magazine, "Parahuman Reproduction, Android Cloning, The New Biology, Artificial Synthesis, Genetic Engineering, Brain Transfers", August 1972. ·

Definitions Define Us

According to Dictionary.Com, the most-visited and most trusted online dictionary in the world and for my purposes conveniently located in Oakland, California, a "human being" is "[1] any individual of the genus Homo, especially a member of the species Homo Sapiens. [2] a person, especially as distinguished from other animals or as representing the human species. [3] a member of any of the races of Homo sapiens; person; man, woman, or child" ¹ Biblically speaking, God created the first human being ^2,3 and by way of the Strong's Dictionary the word man (אָדָם) used in Genesis 1:26 is 'adam aw-dawm', an individual or the species, mankind (i.e. a human being). ⁴

Definitions Define Who We Are

The VisualThesaurus.Com is an online and interactive tool that reveals the connections between words and meaning, the term "human being" can be conceptualized as illustrated in figure 1 on the left. ⁵ Here we find a world of words connected by solid lines that have the same meaning (i.e., synonyms). Their meanings are in turn represented by circles, color-coded to indicate the part of our speech, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs that they belong to. Antonyms or words that express opposite concepts and are visually connected by dashed red lines.

Definitions Define What We Are

If we take advantage of the power the VisualThesaurus.Com and click on the term "human" we discover a stunning and captivating visual description of our humanity expressed in and by our own words.



Again, words connected by solid lines have the same meaning and words connected by dashed red lines such as the term nonhuman express the exact opposite meaning. If definitions are linguistic expressions of ourselves, who we are and specifically who is and by default who is not among us, then regardless of our ability to demonstrate "self-awareness, volition and rationality" clearly all of us are human.

Definitions Define What's Legal

Legally, a person has been recognized by the law as a person, not because he or she is human, but because rights and duties have been ascribed to him or her by those who have already been ascribed such rights and duties. ⁶ This, in part, explains why women, children, non-landowners, minorities, slaves, etc., have been legally oppressed over the years. Right now, the child inside the womb is fighting for such rights and duties. Without such rights and duties (i.e., 'personhood' a term used by Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court Harry Andrew Blackmun in Roe v. Wade ⁷) the child inside the womb, an innocent human being, can be killed, in all 50 states, through all nine months of pregnancy, for virtually any reason at all, even though it is illegal to take the life of an innocent human being.

Definitions Define The Real Question

Personhood clearly defines humanity by recognizing human beings as "created in the image of God" from the beginning of their biological development, without exceptions and the recipients of the God given right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as legal persons. Today, the question is not whether there is room in the linguistic world above for the child inside the womb. Clearly there is room. Clearly the child inside the womb is human. Clearly Winston L. Duke is wrong. The real question is, why is abortion on demand still legal? If Margaret Sanger, ⁸ the founder of Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the United States of America with 85 independent affiliates operating 820 abortion clinics around the country, ⁹ today's United States Supreme Court Justices, ¹⁰ the entire Pro-Life community, and the holy Body of Christ can admit that abortion takes the life of an innocent human being … I cannot help but wonder … what reason can we "the people" outside the womb, give God for tacitly consenting to the shedding of innocent blood ¹¹ within the womb?

Brothers, we really need to talk.

Note(s):
· Special thanks to Dianne N. Irving, M.A., Ph.D. for her very excellent research and work entitled: "Any Human Cell — iPS, Direct Programmed, Embryonic, Fetal or Adult — Can Be Genetically Engineered to Asexually Reproduce New Human Embryos for Purposes of Reproduction ("Infertility") (http://bit.ly/soSNbY).
Reference(s):
01. Dictionary.Com's mission is to "redefine reference and learning in the context of emerging technology while preserving the painstaking traditions of expertise and integrity that everyone expects from a dictionary." (http://bit.ly/9MVmUD).
02. Genesis 1:26,27 says: "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness … So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." (King James Version)
03. Genesis 2:7 says: "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." (King James Version).
04. The Strong's Dictionary is a concordance of the King James Bible (KJV) that was constructed under the direction of Dr. James Strong (1822-1894) and first published in 1890. It is an exhaustive cross-reference of every word in the KJV back to the word in the original text.(http://bit.ly/tC0TCF).
05. VisualThesaurus.Com "is an interactive dictionary and thesaurus which creates word maps that blossom with meanings and branch to related words. Its innovative display encourages exploration and learning." (http://bit.ly/RGvU2).
06. (http://bit.ly/sVZyaN).
07. "Roe v. Wade, 410 U. S. 113 (1973)". U.S. Supreme Court.
08. Sanger, Margaret (1938). Margaret Sanger, An Autobiography. New York: W. W. Norton. p. 217.
09. Wikipedia, Planned Parenthood (http://bit.ly/4AgtGW).
10. "The Place of Women on the Court", NYTimes.com, Thursday, July 9th, 2009 (http://bit.ly/hI1Nfq).
11. Proverb 6:16,17, "These six things does the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him. A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood." (King James Version) (http://bit.ly/vpI8oP).