In this legislative session, “fetal personhood” bills illustrate how uncontrolled passion may drag our state into an embarrassing swamp of inadvertent legal, medical and administrative nightmares.

These bills attempt to accord the status of a person to an “unborn child,” defined as any human entity from fertilized egg to birth. It is a clear attempt by passionate pro-life activists to indirectly overturn Roe v. Wade. Regardless of one's position in the hotly debated abortion issue, fetal personhood bills should be viewed as a black eye to common sense, human rights and dignity, and the reputation of our state.

By giving a fertilized egg, an embryo or a fetus “all the rights, privileges, and immunities available to other persons, citizens, and residents of the state,” we are creating a new class of legal persons, and thus singling out an existing class of persons (fertile women) for unequal treatment by the law. A man's body would not be subjected to the same scrutiny.

By granting the embryo equal protection of the laws, the state would be forced to deny the same to the woman. Should we prosecute women for smoking or running a marathon during pregnancy should something happen to the fetus “person”? Personhood laws would allow the government to infringe upon one of citizens' most fundamental rights — the right to privacy free from governmental intrusion. Ironically, the same people who decry such intrusion are at the forefront of promoting such onerous legislation.