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What differentiates me from pro-life people on this thread is that I look for human features (as early as 8 weeks) such as human form (head and body) and human functions (neural activity). Those are what I want to protect. I believe those features trigger emotional responses in people (empathy) that can be harnessed to convince them to protect that fetus.

Personhood, for most a quality contingent on development beyond the fertilized egg stage.

That sounds like a useful term to me as long as it is understood there is no magic moment at which "personhood" occurs, rather, it emerges gradually after a few weeks of development and becomes readily apparant at 8-12 weeks.

Personhood is a social and legal construct, which varies according to geometry, national borders and religious beliefs and time. Fortunately, the history of humans has shown a trend toward more individual humans being designated as persons and given protection.

As a woman, I'm glad I don't live in Saudi Arabia. I'm sure that there are people on this board who are glad that they weren't born when Taney's decision against Dred Scott would have denied them personhood. And others who are glad that they weren't dependent on Mengele and Hitler's definition of personhood.

According to Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, personhood does not begin until birth. According to Barbara Boxer and Peter Singer, it's later. There have been posts on this thread that state that a person must be conscious, reasoning, and/or able to protect himself from being killed.

I believe the definition of legal personhood should include all human beings, not just the ones I like, value, can see, or who agree with me on religion and politics.