When is a baby considered a person?

Question

don't answer this question with your personal beliefs, but with laws.

Answer 1

The problem is the laws are so nondiscript on this.

For example, it is pretty much accepted by all legal bodies that a child is a person when they are born. It's up to that point that's a problem.

If you murder a pregnant woman who is in her 3rd trimester, in some states you can be charged with double murder, the mother and the child.

Partial birth abortions are done on a child who is well into the third trimester, but is legal in some states, even if the operation is done for a reason other than the health of the mother. Even then, the "health of the mother". Physical or mental? If a woman's mental health is thought to be threatened by becoming a mother, does that mean it is legal to do a patial birth abortion if the situtation "warrents" it?

Put simply, the laws are very, very unclear.

Ask a pregnant woman and she will tell you how her child is doing from very early on. Once the baby starts growing bigger, it is no longer a thing, it's a child.
Ask an abortion right advocate, and they will say that it's the woman's body that she can do with it what she wants, I guess up until the law takes over and the child is born.

1st edit

You can't say that, MSAD. If that were the case, then Scott Peterson could not have been charged with double homocide for killing his wife. You cannot legally say that a child isn't a child until they are born. There are more than a few laws that provide a limited number of rights to an unborn child. A mother can be charged in some states with child abuse for using drugs while pregnant, that's another example. How can the law look at her actions as child abuse if her unborn child isn't a person yet?

The laws are clear as mud on this.

Answer 2

When it is born.

Answer 3

At conception.