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Maybe the moment of birth is too arbitrary a point at which to locate the beginning or personhood after all. Maybe the people are right who say that personhood really begins at some point in the child’s post partum existence. Maybe Dr. Robert H. Williams is right when he says:
The fetus has not been shown to be nearer to the human being than is the unborn ape. Even the full-term infant must undergo many changes before attaining full status of humanity. Only near the end of the first year of age does a child demonstrate intellectual development, speaking ability, and other attributes that differentiate him significantly from other species (Robert H. Williams, “Our Role in the Generation, Modification and Termination of Life,” Archives of Internal Medicine, 1969).
One wonders in reading this statement whether the next lie to be sold is our culture will be the idea that infanticide (like feticide) is really not murder at all because children less than one year old are not persons.----
Abortion and the Meaning of Personhood, Clifford E. Bajema, pages 20,21