Abortion Rights and Fetal 'Personhood' [Paperback]

Edd Doerr (Author), James W. Prescott (Editor)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Centerline Pr (July 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0913111260
• ISBN-13: 978-0913111260
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,794,401 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Solid,workmanlike traditional Western, May 7, 2002

By 

F. J. Harvey "Cricket ,country music and a go... (Birmingham England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Timberline (Hardcover)

This is a brisk,no nonsense Western, traditional and very much of its period --the early 50's.It is entertaining,lively and more than a little formulaic which will restrict its appeal to devotees of the genre and is unlikely to do much for those to whom the Western paperback original is not a pressing interest.

Its protagonist is "Burn Webb"who is dismissed after 6 years in the employment of " Ruben Miller" the boss of the "Iron Cross"ranch,with no reason being apparent.

The dismissal comes at a time when "Webb"is re-evaluating his life ,and becoming aware that he needs a change of career if he is to be able to marry the love of his life ,"Muller's"daughter "Ellie".He requires money and property on a scale not possible on a cowhand's pay.Turning down a job as deputy sheriff of Cottonwood he instead purchases land adjacent to the "Iron Cross" and near to the other big local ranch "Arrowhead"Poised between two powerful forces he expects and gets trouble in the form of arson and severe drubbing from Arrowhead riders
The book is the tale of his attempts to carve out a ranch and attain his romantic goals in the bargain.

Paine is good on the sheer physical toil of ranching and does not romanticise the cowhand way of life which is painted as essentially a young man's game

It's a good yarn that wins no prizes for originality but keeps the Western devotee turning the pages briskly

3.0 out of 5 stars LEGALLY SPEAKING, WHEN DOES A FETUS BECOME A PERSON?, August 12, 2010

By 

James L. Park "James Leonard Park" (Minneapolis, MN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Abortion Rights and Fetal 'Personhood' (Paperback)

Edd Doerr & James W. Prescott
Abortion Rights and Fetal 'Personhood'

(Long Beach, CA: Centerline Press, 1990--Second Edition) 151 pages

This is a pro-choice book of essays
from a conference sponsored by the Americans for Religious Liberty.
Personhood is understood here only in the legal sense.
A fetus becomes a person
when someone in power and authority declares it to be a person.
There is some attention to 'viability'
--the point when a fetus could live independent of its mother's body,
but this seems to be the closest the authors come
to an empirical concept of personhood.

Does a fetus have any rights?
Under most systems of laws on earth, no.
But a fetus could have rights if such were granted by law.

What about brain development before birth?
Other animals have pre-birth brain activity,
but they never become persons.

In most cultures the birth of a baby
welcomes it into the human community.
But infanticide was often permitted.
Each culture defines the status and rights of the baby.
Different cultures recognize personhood beginning at different points:
When does an aborted fetus deserve to be be buried as a person?
Even in Roman Catholic hospitals,
small fetuses are not buried with the rites and honors of a person.
Historically, different cultures have different points
at which the baby is recognized as a member of the community:
baptism, naming, walking, clothing, doing certain actions, etc.
And there might be many levels of personhood up to adulthood.
In some cultures there is a 7 or 8-day waiting period
between biological birth and presentation to the community,
when the baby is brought outdoors.

Usually the death of a fetus before social birth
is not considered as great a tragedy as the death of a child.
Here again, people are defining
the moment a new-born becomes a person.
Sometimes coming into personhood coincides with naming the child.
In Western cultures, this generally takes place before baptism.

This conference mostly omitted empirical questions
about the personhood of the fetus.
Perhaps the next such conference can ask questions
based on looking at actual fetuses and babies.

If you would like to explore other attempts to define personhood,
search the Internet for this phrase:
"Personhood Bibliography".

James Leonard Park, medical ethicist