Should a fetus be considered and human being?

Should A Fetus Be Considered A Human Being?
There are many questions surrounding abortion, but the most prevalent question focuses on when the fetus is considered a person, and when does it acquire the rights that us grown human beings hold? In The Metaphysics of a Person: Why I Am Pro-Choice By Lode Cossaer, he asserts his opinion on this subject. Cossaer argues that a fetus cannot be considered a human being with the same rights we posses until the fetus can either: feel and sense pain, or can live outside of the mothers womb. Cossaer believes that something with the characteristics of a week old fetus, something with only the potential to become a person, should not be considered a human being with rights. “Just because I destroy something that has the possibility of becoming X, is not the same as destroying X. To infer from the possibility of becoming X, that one already is X, is a fallacy” (1) ( Lode Cossaer, The Metaphysics of a Person: Why I Am Pro-Choice) This excerpt from Cossaer’s Pro-Choice article defends his opinion on a fetus only merely holding the status of a potential person, and not a full fledged human being. Cossaers argument can be summarized as follows:
1. Something that is only a potential person, should not be treated as a person
2. A fetus is only a potential person
3. Something that is only a potential person should not possess the same rights as you and I
4. Therefore, a fetus should not be considered a person

For the conclusion to follow, all the premises have to be proven true. The conclusion, a fetus should not be considered a person, is backed up by the three main premises above stated by the author. In order to believe that the conclusion is true, you need to assume that everyone agrees with premise 1 because it is the author’s opinion. Premise 1 can be concluded differently based on morals, and everyone, and every culture has different morals. If you do not think that a potential person should not be treated as a person, you would find the whole argument invalid. The argument that Lode Cossaer makes lacks many proven facts and evidence to help support his argument. There is no scientifically proven fact that a potential person should be treated as a person, because it can only be an opinion. Premise 2 states that a fetus is only a potential person, and science has proven this true. Single celled embryos, most of our fertilized embryos, don’t end up as babies at all; they are lost at an early stage before you would even know you were pregnant. Embryos that never make it to the uterus just die off. Cossaer did make a good, valid argument concerning this saying that just because something has the potential to eventually become X, does not mean it is already X. The hidden premise between premise 2 and 3 assumes that all humans have natural born rights, and that we all, again, have the same moral and ethical values. The whole argument that Cossaer makes assumes that everyone believes that there is a universal moral code that all humans posses, and if we all believe this, the argument can continue and the argument is valid. All of the premises can be true to one person, but they all can also be false to another person with different moral and ethical values, making this a hard argument to prove to someone that everything is true. The objection against all of the premises and the conclusion is saying that just because the fetus is only a potential person, the fetus should still be considered a person. This would be a premise for a Pro-Lifer who believes that unborn babies are human beings with moral values and rights. Whether or not you chose Pro-Life or Pro-Choice, it is all an opinion. Would the opinion in people who stand for Pro-Life change if the cause of pregnancy was rape? Or the mother is ill and could potential die if forced to give birth? Then your opinion is that abortion is only ok sometimes, and okay under certain circumstances. I do not think the writer succeeded in proving a valid argument, and attempting to convince people that his conclusion is true, the argument lacked any sort of proven fact to support his argument, and had many holes and hidden premises.

Sources:
1) Cossaer, Lode. “The Metaphysics of a Person: Why I Am Pro-Choice”. DL Magazine, September 8, 2013 http://dlmagazine.org/2013/09/rights-of-unborn/2/ 2) Manninen, Bertha. “The Argument From Fetal Potential” http://www.peh-med.com/content/2/1/7