Musings * Jan 17, 2005
I've been thinking about this dangerous trend among the rightwingnuts to define legal "personhood" as beginning at conception.
If the religious rightwingnuts are successful at getting personhood defined legally as extending back to conception, will that mean that the definition of the "age" of a person also moves back nine months for legal purposes? Will voting, the age of majority, definition of a juvenile shift back nine months or require amending all laws? Will retirement benefits be paid 9 months earlier?
Will a new certificate have to be issued, in addition to a birth certificate, to determine the age at which the "person" became a person? And how will the actual date of conception be proven for legal purposes? Cameras in bedrooms? Notarized diary entries? Required witnesses?
It boggles the mind.
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