When Is a Person? Pre-Persons and Former Persons:…
This book offers about 200 questions that can be asked by proxies
when discussing the level of personhood in anyone they know.
These questions are organized around 4 capacities that make us persons:
(1) consciousness, (2) memory, (3) language, & (4) autonomy.
Here are some things my mother did while she was a “former person”:
*She let me hold her hand knowing I may never do so again
*She listened to us tell her we loved her and were grateful for the life she gave us
*She allowed us to ask mechila with a whole heart
*She shed a tear as we said goodbye
*She brought to mind all the things I still “needed” her for, reminding me to have hakoras Hatov to those people in my life who deserve it
*She reminded us how precious life is even though it is fleeting
I am sure there is more. I am also sure that many “full persons” fail to impart such critical and deep seated lessons to their children and students. Perhaps their “personhood” is not so full after all.