“If You Prick Us, Do We Not Bleed?”: Of Shylock, Fetuses, and the Concept of Person in the Law

Abstract

The focus of the abortion debate in the United States tends to be on whether and at what stage a fetus is a person. I believe this tendency has been unfortunate and counterproductive. Instead of advancing dialogue between opposing sides, such a focus seems to have stunted it, leaving advocates in the sort of I did not—You did too impasse we remember from childhood. Also reminiscent of that childhood scene has been the vain attempt to break the impasse by appeal to a higher authority. Thus, the pro-choice forces hoped they had proved the pro-life forces wrong by having had the Supreme Court of the United States decide inRoev. Wade that a fetus is not a person for purposes of the fourteenth amendment. Now the pro-life forces are trying to prove the pro-choice forces wrong by passing legislation or a constitutional amendment that declares a fetus to be a person after all