In article , Gary Coffman says...

The Founders, and most people throughout history, had the same notion
of what a person is that many rational people hold today. A person is a
biological entity capable of sustaining life on its own without the biological
necessity of being parasitic on a host. In other words, a person becomes
a person, registerable by the taxing authorities, when it draws its first
independent breath.

When the taxing authorities start issuing zygotes Social Security numbers,
then the State will have recognized zygotes as independent persons. To
date that has not happened in any country in the world. Even the Catholic
Church, long a foe of abortion, won't list zygotes on its roles as parishioners.
Implicitly by deeds, if not explicitly by words, they've long recognized that
zygotes aren't actually persons until they are born alive.

I suspect that this is pretty much how the US courts view the matter
at the moment.

Jim

==================================================
please reply to:
JRR(zero) at yktvmv (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com
==================================================