User:NCartmell

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University student, English major, sociology minor, Bible minor. Favourite literary movement: British Romantic poets.

Consider:

• I have personhood. You have personhood. We are both persons.
• Because of this personhood, we have certain natural rights--not granted by the government, not derived from society; they are intrinsic to personhood, and all persons have them.
• I lose my arm to surgery, but I--my personhood--has not been changed or negated. I am still a person, exactly like you.
• Therefore, there is something about personhood that is not dependent upon the physical. What makes me a person is not my form or shape. I could have no limbs and still be a person, I could have an extra limb and still be a person. (This is, roughly, Plato's argument from The Republic.)

I'm sure you can extrapolate this point to a raging debate in our society about life and choice.