Today’s Voting on Personhood

By Susan Young:

Can science prove when “personhood” begins?

“When do you believe life begins?” Johnny DuPree, Democratic candidate for governor of Mississippi, asked during a public debate on 14 October. The question was rhetorical, and DuPree’s answer — not a surprise in one of the most socially conservative US states — was the same as that of his Republican opponent: “I believe life begins at conception.”

On 8 November, Mississippi voters will not only decide who should lead the state, but also indicate whether they agree with the candidates about the status of embryos. The Initiative 26 ballot measure proposes to amend the state’s constitution to redefine ‘person’ as “every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning, or the equivalent thereof”. If approved, the amendment would effectively bestow human rights on fertilized human eggs, making abortion illegal in the state in most, if not all, circumstances.

“The unborn child in the womb is scientifically proven to be a human being, and when it comes down to it we are a human-rights organization,” says Jennifer Mason, communications director for Personhood USA, a national advocacy group based in Arvada, Colorado, and one of the initiative’s backers.

By defining personhood so broadly, the measure would also have an impact beyond abortion — for example, it could rule out research using human embryonic stem cells and put doctors who offer in vitrofertilization (IVF) in a dubious legal position, because not all embryos created during fertility treatment survive the procedure….

But opponents say that the wording of the amendment means that it could interfere with established medical practices. “If personhood begins at fertilization, then we have to talk about IVF and birth control,” says Jonathan Will, director of the Bioethics and Health Law Center at Mississippi College in Jackson. Some forms of contraception, such as the intra­uterine device and emergency hormonal contraceptive pills, prevent fertilized embryos from implanting in the uterine wall and so could be considered illegal under the amendment, experts say.

Fertility doctors add that the measure could hamper IVF and endanger the would-be mother and her offspring.

To give patients the best chance of pregnancy, doctors typically fertilize 8–10 eggs and implant only the one or two embryos that seem most vigorous. The rest are stored or discarded. If a doctor is forced to implant all fertilized eggs to avoid prosecution, then the patient is more likely to have multiple pregnancies, which can be risky for her and the fetuses. Yet limiting the number of embryos created for IVF to only the number of children desired reduces the chance of success and increases the likelihood that women will have to undergo the difficult and expensive procedure more than once.