Personhood

Presumptive personhood.

Simplicity, personhood, and divinity

In contemporary philosophy of religion, it is customary to think of God as an individual person, who exists in time, and is related to things in the world not only as their cause but also in various respects as their effect.1 On the whole, this model has displaced the so-called 'classical' account, according to which God is pure being and therefore 'simple'. Two kinds of consideration lie behin...

Interrogating personhood and dementia

OBJECTIVES To interrogate the concept of personhood and its application to care practices for people with dementia. METHOD We outline the work of Tom Kitwood on personhood and relate this to conceptualisations of personhood in metaphysics and in moral philosophy. RESULTS The philosophical concept of personhood has a long history. The metaphysical tradition examines the necessary and suffici...

Having Babies: Personhood or Product?

One out of every six married couples experiences infertility at some point in their relationship. Most couples expect and desire to conceive children, and thus fulfill their “procreative duty.” However, this desire is interrupted by the pain of childlessness. Modern technology has responded through procedures such as artificial insemination or in vitro fertilization (IVF). If these technologies...

Personhood, contraception and population control.