Emerging Elitist Theory Threatens to Redefine Personhood
by Mary Rettig
December 8, 2005
(AgapePress) - - A senior fellow at the Discovery Institute says the changing definition of personhood in contemporary society will have a profound effect on everything from abortion and euthanasia to assisted reproductive technology and embryonic stem-cell research.The Discovery Institute's Wesley Smith maintains that the United States of America was founded on the premise of the great value of human life and that all human life, regardless of mental or physical capacity, is important. But increasingly, he says, opinions on this subject are changing, especially in bioethics and some higher education circles, and an idea known as the "personhood theory" is taking hold.
Under this theory, Smith explains, "being human is irrelevant to moral worth. What matters is whether you have sufficient cognitive capacity to be deemed worthy of things such as life and bodily integrity; and if you do, for example, by being self aware over time, you are called a person." So, while the words "person" and "human" were at one time considered synonyms, he observes, "increasingly in the universities and among the elite, that is no longer true."
Putting criteria on what it means to be a person devalues all life by putting a quantitative value on it, the Discovery Institute fellow contends. Also, he believes once such definitions are established, they would likely change with whoever is in power at any given time, putting the weak and the marginalized in society in a perpetually vulnerable state.
"I think defeating personhood theory in the marketplace of ideas may be the most urgent matter facing this society," Smith adds, "because if being a human being is not what gives moral value, but instead we decide it is personhood theory or some other measurement, then value rights depend on who has the power to decide."
That would turn the value of a person into a matter of politics, Smith says. And whenever that happens, he observes, the value of all life gets demoted and the weak and voiceless in society are left particularly at risk.
Mary Rettig, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
