Personhood

Question 1

What classifies something as a person?

Answer 1

Persons are beings who are part of our moral community

Question 2

What are the different types of personhood criteria?

Answer 2

1. Social Criteria
2. Genetic Criteria
3. Sentience
4. Gradient Theory
5. Cognitive Criteria

Question 3

What does Genetic Criteria mean?

Answer 3

This view says that you are a person if you have human DNA, and you are not a person if you don’t

Question 4

What does Cognitive Criteria mean?

Answer 4

if a being is incapable of communicating, isn’t aware of itself as a self, can’t think or move around on its own, or isn’t conscious, then she says that’s not a being that we can call a person, even if it happens to have human DNA.

Question 5

What are the Stages of Cognitive Criteria?

Answer 5

1. Self motivated activity
2. reasoning
3. self awareness
4. consciousness
5. capability to communicate

Question 6

What does Social Criteria mean?

Answer 6

This view says that you’re a person whenever society recognizes you as a person, or whenever someone cares about you.

Question 7

What is the Gradient Theory?

Answer 7

The gradient theory of personhood says personhood comes down to a matter of degrees (you can have more or less of it). In this view, a fetus would grow slowly in personhood throughout pregnancy as cognition develops.

Question 8

What does Sentience mean?

Answer 8

says that the key to personhood is sentience, the ability to feel pleasure and pain.