A “human being” is a member of the species homo sapiens.
A “human person” would be a person who is a member of the species homo sapiens, as opposed to corporations in the US, members of the Holy Trinity, angels, demons, etc.
Unfortunately that does not work. Substituting one undefined word for another does not help.
I think that the word being or person is being used as a proxy for organism - which had been used in an earlier post.
That is another loosely defined word.
It is a given that the ovum and the sperm are both cells, with a specific DNA structure. It is also a given that their fusion is the starting point of new entity, or organism. So far, so good. But to call it a new human being, much less a new human person is totally ridiculous. Unless it is embedded into the uterus, it will die. Even if it lives, it may split into two or more cells, thus forming several possible beings.
Then this new organism will undergo a series of quantitative and qualitative changes. The question is: at what point does the change merit a new name, or description? Zygote, blastocyst, fetus, newborn? To call all of them human beings, much less human persons makes no sense.
Here is why:
Because a seed is NOT a plant, even though it contains the information to become a plant. Because the fertilized egg is NOT a chicken, even though it contains the information to become a chicken, because a libretto is not an opera, even though it contains the information to become an opera, because the zygote is not a human being, even though it contains the information to become a human being. It is also possible to write the DNA sequence into a book, and that would be the information to construct someone, the information is not the same as referent of the information. In one simple word: “
because the potential is not the same as the actual”. What is so difficult of this concept?
Especially for Thomists.
Of course this is only the first step. Once you internalized this information, it will be possible to continue.
Oh, and one more simple observation: a disagreement is NOT trolling, especially if it leads to a discussion.