Human Being, or Merely Potential Human?
by Jim Hewes
In abortion debates, a pro-abortion presenter might dismiss the developing human organism within the womb as merely a potential human. This suggests a state of being unreal or incomplete. This term is misleading and fundamentally flawed, as it denies biological reality and creates ethical confusion.
Historically, labeling certain groups as less than fully human – be they Jews, black Africans, or immigrants – has been used to justify grave injustices. Similarly, categorizing pre-born children as merely “potential humans” is a dangerous precedent and an arbitrary exclusion of a whole group of powerless, voiceless human beings. It diminishes their rights and protections, leaving them vulnerable to a complete disregard and a brutal injustice.
Misuse of the Term “Potential”
I have a potential job; do I actually have a job?
He has the potential to be one of the team’s best players; is he actually the team’s best player?
She has a potential cure for cancer; does she have a cure for cancer?
Applying “potential” to a developing human being similarly suggests that the pre-born child is not yet real. But is any other part of a woman’s body –such as a gallbladder or appendix – referred to as having potential to independently become a fully developed human being? Clearly not.
In other words, when the word “potential” is used it means that there isn’t a reality, but just abstract future concept. So too, calling the pre-born potential humans means they aren’t real.
That’s why ultrasound of a pre-born child can be so moving to a pregnant woman. The picture of the baby in utero affirms visually and emotionally that what is present is an actual living human being, not merely potential life.
Scientific and Biological Reality
The man’s sperm and the woman’s ovum by themselves never have been, nor ever could be, an individual person. Yet at the moment of fertilization the pre-born child doesn’t simply have potential DNA, the child possesses actual DNA. This includes a complete design, which is unrepeatable and completely distinct from the DNA of both the mother and the father.
Fetal surgery offers treatments that can correct certain medical conditions before birth. This would be impossible if the pre-born were merely potential life. This demonstrates that “potential human” really means “pre-human,” which is obviously irrelevant to the fundamental scientific definition of human life, as determined by embryology.
Sarah Terzo’s article on Substack reports on a book Pregnancy and Abortion Counseling by Joanna Brien and Ida Fairbai (1996 p.176) – a very pro-abortion book. Even these authors admit that sonographers experience difficulty when seeing a baby about to be aborted. This is unlikely if the child were merely “potential” life.
For a real and powerful story of one sonographer’s graphic experience see Choice 42.com “The Procedure,” witnessing the abortion of an actual human being, not a potential one. It was seeing a real life (not a potential life) being aborted on a sonogram. Abby Johnson’s testimony, famously portrayed in Unplanned, confirms this: witnessing the sonogram of a real human being aborted prompted her to leave Planned Parenthood and become a strong pro-life advocate.
If the pre-born were merely potential life, there couldn’t be a strong objection made against a pregnant woman taking thalidomide, consuming an excessive amount of alcohol,) or taking drugs like cocaine, all of which can cause birth defects. In other words, there wouldn’t be an objection to deforming, addicting, burning, suffocating, starving, dismembering, or torturing a life which is only a potential life. The strong disapproval and prohibition of such actions only makes sense if what is harmed is an actual life, not merely a potential human being.
Survivors of Abortion:
Not Potential but Actual Human Beings
We have real life stories of those who were considered at one time just potential lives yet survived an abortion. Many more stories are at the Abortion Survivors Network.
Melissa Ohden (“You Carried Me: A Daughter’s Memoir,” and “Abortion Survivors Speak Their Silence”)
Jessica Shaver Renshaw (“Gianna”)
Claire Culwell (“Survivor: An Abortion Survivor’s Surprising Story of “Choosing Forgiveness and Finding Redemption”)
Cynthia Toolin-Wilson (“Survivor: A Memoir of Forgiveness”)
“Potential” as a Weapon
What moment is our potential achieved? Then, what is it about that moment that makes us human? What makes this moment different from the potential after this moment is achieved (whether at conception or moments before birth)? One is never less a human because of their potential. There are always events or conditions that could increase or decrease whether the potential will actually happen or be fulfilled.
In addition, once we meet that “potential” that makes us human, does our potential cease? If so, then it appears that our “humanity” as defined by potential is a “dead end street.” If not and we have the potential “to grow,” then growth is not a foreign concept to being human, which makes the embryo or fetus as much human as any other stage of development.
In a pro-abortion rationalization, potential is the enemy. It diminishes us. In fact, our potential should really enhance our present worth and value!
Using the word “potential” in this situation is simply arbitrary categorization. It results from linguistic manipulation. All social engineering is proceeded by verbal engineering. Saying a pre-born child is only a potential life is just another modern example of the self-creating of one’s own reality, divorced from an objective truth. Redefining reality to suit subjective views threatens objective truth and undermines moral accountability.
Conclusion
The consequence of this arbitrary framing is done by those in power, who then determine certain pre-born children aren’t human beings, but only potential humans, which means that a whole group weren’t worthy of the rights and protections afforded to human beings. How is it possible to have a complete brutal annihilation of something that is only potential?
The phrase “potential human” effectively means “pre-human,” a distraction incompatible with scientific definitions provided by embryology. The embryo or fetus is undeniably a human being, complete with unique DNA and developmental autonomy. Labeling any human as “potential” rather than actual diminishes their inherent dignity, echoing tragic historical errors we must avoid repeating.
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For more of our posts addressing abortion rhetoric, see:
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