Defending Premise 2a¹

Alternatively, the real point of disagreement might be the definition of person rather than organism. As usual, you need to start with understanding the pro-choicer’s position—when does she think personhood begins? Whatever point² she chooses, it will presumably be because that point in development marks a significant transition of some kind. Your job is to put your finger on what trait is involved in that transition and show that that trait is not, in fact, integral to personhood. The distinguished pro-life apologist Stephen Schwarz³ says to keep in mind the acronym “SLED”—most candidate points at which to draw the line, other than conception, implicitly predicate a human’s personhood on size, level of development, environment, or dependency—none of which is considered relevant to a born person’s personhood.