The other day in my Physical Anthropology class, I was showing a video on genetics that I\u2019d shown in prior semesters, but this time one portion of it struck me in a new way.\u00a0 I believe I have figured out some of the \u2018reasoning\u2019 used by those legislators who are pushing personhood bills which declare the zygote (fertilized egg) to be a person who is entitled to all the rights of an actual person.<\/p>\n
In Medieval Christian Europe, there was little understanding of biological processes and even less effort made to rectify the situation. The views of the ancient Greeks, especially Aristotle, were taken as the \u2018gospel truth\u2019. \u00a0Unfortunately, Aristotle and other Greeks, such as the physician Galen, did not understand the mechanisms of sexual reproduction in humans.<\/p>\n
The ancient Greeks and, therefore, the Medieval Christians, believed that the man provided everything that was needed for a new human, except for a place to grow that new human.\u00a0 The woman was essentially just an incubator.\u00a0 Furthermore, they believed that a tiny person, the homunculus, lived in the head of the sperm.\u00a0 They knew nothing about the ovum\/egg.<\/p>\n
The man ejaculated this tiny person into the woman and about nine months later, the \u2018incubator\u2019 produced a baby.\u00a0 Other than providing a womb for growth, the baby did not belong to the woman.\u00a0 The baby was solely generated, and therefore owned, by the man.\u00a0 Of course, women were also owned (chattel) by men, further diminishing the female contribution to the baby.<\/p>\n
As we have seen from the comments made by many of the personhood legislators, their understanding of biology and human reproduction has not progressed beyond that of the Medieval Christians.\u00a0 A belief in the homunculus, whether or not it is articulated, clearly underlies the concept of giving personhood to a zygote and the subsequent ball of cells.\u00a0 Anyone who believes in the homunculus must<\/span> view a zygote as a miniature person.\u00a0 Following from this, their \u2018logic\u2019 leads them to wish to protect this miniature person.<\/p>\n Awarding full personhood rights to a zygote while ignoring the rights of the woman in whom the zygote exists also follows from the Medieval Christian view that women are just incubators who contribute nothing to the embryo\/fetus.\u00a0 Since a pregnant woman is an incubator, she has no rights to do anything to the zygote\/embryo\/fetus.\u00a0 Only men can decide this for her since only men truly \u2018generate\u2019 offspring.<\/p>\n These same legislators want contraception\/birth control outlawed because it prevents a man from generating more offspring.\u00a0 In their Medieval Christian view, any sperm that is prevented from implanting in the womb results in killing a person since the head of the sperm contains the homunculus.\u00a0 Life doesn\u2019t begin at conception.\u00a0 Life begins in the sperm.\u00a0 Every sperm is a potential life because every sperm has a miniscule person residing in it.\u00a0 This would also explain why masturbation is a sin.\u00a0 Think of all the \u2018lives\u2019 that are being wasted\/lost!<\/p>\n Since, in this Medieval Christian view, the man is the sole generator of life, and the woman merely an incubator, even rapists deserve to have rights to any resulting offspring.\u00a0 If a woman becomes pregnant despite being raped, then that embryo\/fetus is meant to be born.\u00a0 Women (or even young girls impregnated by their fathers) must carry to term all results of sexual activity whether consensual or not.\u00a0 After the birth, the woman has fewer rights over the offspring than does the genitor (man), even if that individual is a rapist.\u00a0 After all, the offspring is more truly his than it is hers since her major role is as an incubator while he was the genitor.<\/p>\n The anti-contraception, anti-abortion, pro-personhood legislation now coursing through state legislatures can be understood if we realize that those pushing this legislation are operating under the Medieval Christian and Aristotlean view of human reproduction: the male is the genitor while the woman is the incubator.\u00a0 Their \u2018knowledge\u2019 is stuck in the 11th<\/sup> century.\u00a0 It is little wonder that those of us who live in the 21st<\/sup> century are shocked, amazed, and horrified by these legislators who have no understanding of human reproduction, but who are trying to control women and their reproduction.<\/p>\n