Webster's Dictionary defines a person as (1) a human being. A person is one who has the body and characteristics of a human being. A person is a noun and can be a man, woman, or a child. Persons have both a body and a mind. They have the ability to feel pain. They often possess thoughts and beliefs that differentiate an individual from those around them. The concept of a person was first articulated in the 4th and 5th century Trinitarian and Christological debates.
Personhood is simply having the status of a person. What beings have the status of a person has not always been defined the same way throughout history. Throughout American history, there was a time when Blacks only counted as three fifths of a person. Personhood is often defined in terms of the law, citizenship, liberty, and equality. Thus, for legal purposes, animals, corporations, sovereign states, and estates in probate can hold the status of a person. Therefore, the characteristics of personhood are those that are attributed to a person under the law in the society in which one lives.
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