Summary

¹

Having rigorously defended every element of the logical structure proposed at the outset, we pro-lifers are convinced that to define a person as anything other than a living human organism is to place extra constraints on the definition that are either logically indefensible or socially inconsistent. And if we accept this definition—stripped of all limitations other than the obvious necessity to be human and to be a living organism—then fertilization marks the beginning of personhood since, in ordinary circumstances, it initiates an organism’s existence.

If human embryos and fetuses are persons, then, like all other persons, they have a right not to be deliberately killed, and the pro-life position has been vindicated.