TLS Center for Human Rights Presents
Human Rights and the Unborn:
The Plausibility of Constitutional Legal Personhood
FEBRUARY 13, 2023 | 5:00 – 6:00 PM PST
Distinguished University Chair and Professor,
University of St. Thomas School of Law
5:00-6:00 pm PST
and Livestream via Zoom
Human Rights and the Unborn: The Plausibility of Constitutional Legal Personhood
Join us on Monday, February 13, at 5 pm PST
for the Inaugural Lecture in our Center for Human Rights lecture series.
Is the unborn human child a “person” within the legal meaning of the U.S. Constitution? A “person” whom the state may not deprive of life “without due process of law” and to whom the several states owe a constitutional duty of “equal protection of the laws” from the private violence or wrongs of others, or the discrimination of the state? The Supreme Court’s recent decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization famously overruled the 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade creating a constitutional right to abortion. But is there a constitutional human right to life that affirmatively forbids abortion in many or most circumstances? The Dobbs majority expressed deep skepticism of this position. But it is a close, difficult, and exceedingly important question of constitutional law and human rights. Is the legal-personhood position constitutionally plausible?
