Personhood and "life"
 

Duden (50-1): "Redefinitions of who is a subject of a legal system have been attempted before. One immediately thinks of the refusal by Christians and Jews to honor Caesar's image, or of the conspiracy of burghers that gave rise to the medieval city, or of the replacement of the subject by the citizen in the American and French Revolutions. But I want to argue that the replacement of a citizen by 'a life' is a change of a much more radical nature."
 
59: "The natural person whose integrity and freedom can be protected by a legal system appears only in modern times, and it took centuries before this kind of person was first placed within the womb."

> from Barbara Duden's Disembodying Women: Perspectives on Pregnancy and the Unborn (1993)

> tagged with #personhood

> created November 3, 2025 at 2:36:23 PM


> part of unfinished everything


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unfinished everything is an original work / ongoing project (1997-present) by jeremy p. bushnell

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