Personhood: Defining Humanity

8/3/2019 Personhood: Defining Humanity

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A Weekly Column By Walter B. Hoye II

Conflict Of

Interest

In the abortion debate, is there a "Conflict of Interest"within the Black community and among her leaders?

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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 "humanbeing" 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 theword man (!"#"$) used in Genesis 1:26 is 'adam aw-

dawm', an individual or the species, mankind (i.e. a

humanbeing). 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


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"humanbeing" 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 ourhumanity

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


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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 humanbeing, 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 humanbeing.

Definitions Define The Real Question

Personhood clearly defines humanity by recognizing

humanbeings 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-Lifecommunity, and the holy Body of Christ can admit that abortion takes the life of an

innocent humanbeing 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, DirectProgrammed, 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.


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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).

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Personhood: Defining Humanity