Final answer:
The view that a fetus becomes a person at quickening is problematic because it does not align with medical science, occurs too late in development, varies across cultures, and is not universally accepted as a marker for personhood.
Step-by-step explanation:
The view that the fetus becomes a person at quickening is problematic because quickening, the moment when a pregnant person first feels fetal movements, typically occurs at approximately weeks 16-20 and does not have a consistent or scientific basis for determining personhood. This is highlighted by a variety of factors:
- It doesn't align with medical science since medical definitions of fetal development are based on gestational timelines that do not give any specific moral or personhood status to the stages of prenatal development.
- Quickening occurs too late in pregnancy to be a relevant marker for personhood because key developmental processes have already taken place, and the fetus is already in a recognizable form of human life.
- It varies among different cultures, with some cultures attaching personhood at birth or at other culturally significant milestones, which demonstrates that quickening as a marker for personhood is not universally recognized.
- Quickening is not a universally accepted concept for the start of personhood in the philosophical and ethical debates surrounding abortion with various arguments challenging it from different moral, cultural, and metaphysical perspectives.
The problematic nature of using quickening as a standard for personhood lies in its variability, lack of universality, and misalignment with medical and ethical reasoning.