Theo Todman's Web Page - Notes Pages

Personal Identity

Pregnancy

(Work In Progress: output at 28/12/2025 11:06:43)

Plug Note¹

• Thesis Text:
  1. At first sight, this topic sounds utterly tangential to my research interests, but I’ve included it because Elselijn Kingma complained – in "Kingma (Elselijn) - BUMP: Better Understanding the Metaphysics of Pregnancy (B1)" – that "Olson (Eric) - The Human Animal - Personal Identity Without Psychology" contained not even a footnote on the topic of pregnancy and the metaphysical issues it raises, in particular for animalism².
  2. Following Kingma, the discussion will focus on the relationship throughout pregnancy between the mother and the fetus³. The key question is whether the fetus is a part of the mother or is a separate individual⁴ inside her. Additionally, we need to consider whether this status changes as pregnancy progresses.
  3. I have to admit immediately that (contra Kingma) – my initial view⁵ is that the relationship is more “bun” (the “container model”) than “bump” (the “part model”), though this separation seems clearer as pregnancy progresses, following the implantation of the Zygote⁶ (prior to which there is clear separation – though I suppose we might consider the zygote a small bundle of maternal cells, despite their genetic distinction – a situation that occurs in other cases).
  4. It looks like Kingma’s view is of pregnancy as a case of fusion⁷ (at the point of implantation of the Zygote; I will discuss the ontological status of the zygote shortly) followed by fission⁸ (at birth).
  5. Another point to consider is the possibility of technological developments to enable gestation in an artificial uterus (see Wikipedia: Artificial womb). Would the same arguments imply that the fetus is a part of the machine? Is this plausible?
  6. Having said all the above, just what is the problem for animalism?

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  Further Remarks:
  1. This topic will overlap with that on the status of Fetuses⁹, as well as with the Notes on Zygotes¹⁰ and Embryos¹¹.
  2. After careful consideration, I’ve decided I need a Note to discuss Abortion¹², in so far as I need to consider its relevance to the topic of Personal Identity.

References

• Relevant Works cited above:
  1. "Kingma (Elselijn) - BUMP: Better Understanding the Metaphysics of Pregnancy (B1)", 2016, Annotations, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Read
  2. "Olson (Eric) - The Human Animal - Personal Identity Without Psychology", 1997, Book, Read
• For a page of Links¹³ to this Note, Click here. There are lots of random references that I’ve ignored, particularly those that focus exclusively on the morality of abortion. However, I’ve tended to include the work if I’ve read it.
• Works on this topic that I’ve actually read¹⁴, include the following:-
  • Aeon:
    1. "Finn (Suki) - Bun or bump?", 2017, External Link, Internal PDF Link
    2. "Horn (Claire) - The history of the incubator makes a sideshow of mothering", 2020, External Link, Internal PDF Link
    3. "Isaac (Sasha) - Is artificial-womb technology a tool for women’s liberation?", 2019, External Link, Internal PDF Link
  • General:
    1. "Brody (Baruch) - Abortion and the Sanctity of Human Life: Introduction", 1975
    2. "Kazez (Jean) - The Philosophical Parent: Asking the Hard Questions About Having and Raising Children", 2017
    3. "Kingma (Elselijn) - BUMP: Better Understanding the Metaphysics of Pregnancy (B1)", 2016, Annotations, External Link, Internal PDF Link
    4. "Kingma (Elselijn) - Lady Parts: The Metaphysics of Pregnancy", 2018, Annotations, External Link, Internal PDF Link
    5. "Kingma (Elselijn) - Were You Part of Your Mother?", 2019, Annotations, External Link
    6. "Ludwig (Arnold) - How do we Know who we are? Prologue", 1997
    7. "Olson (Eric) - The Human Animal - Personal Identity Without Psychology", 1997, Book
• A reading list on this topic probably ought to include a textbook on the medical details of pregnancy, particularly from the mother’s perspective, though I don’t seem to have anything other than the works cited:-
  • General:
    1. "Davis (Michael) - Fetuses, Famous Violinists, and the Right to Continued Aid", 1983, Internal PDF Link
    2. "English (Jane) - Abortion and the Concept of a Person", 1975
    3. "Forrester (Mary) - Problems and Persons: Introduction", 1996, Read = 44%
    4. "Lizza (John) - Persons, Humanity, & the Definition of Death", 2006, Book, Read = 2%, Footnote₁₅
    5. "Lyerly (Anne Drapkin), Little (Margaret Olivia), Etc. - Risk and the pregnant body", 2009, Internal PDF Link, Read = 11%
    6. "Profet (Margie) - Pregnancy sickness as adaptation: A deterrent to maternal ingestion of teratogens", 1992, Footnote₁₆
    7. "Scott (Rosamund) - The Pregnant Woman and the Good Samaritan: Can a Woman have a Duty to Undergo a Caesarean Section?", 2000, Internal PDF Link
    8. "Sidzinska (Maja) - Not One, Not Two: Toward an Ontology of Pregnancy", 2017, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Read = 5%
    9. "Smith (Barry) & Varzi (Achille) - Fiat and Bona Fide Boundaries", 2000, Internal PDF Link, Read = 11%
    10. "Smith (Barry) & Varzi (Achille) - The Niche", 1999, Internal PDF Link, Read = 5%

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• For a list of Works that have been considered, but have missed the cut for inclusion in this Section of my Thesis, see the following:-
  1. Read: No items to list.
  2. Further Reading: No items to list.
• This is mostly a place-holder¹⁷.

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In-Page Footnotes:

Footnote 15:

• The item that my algorithms drew my attention to is the possibility of “post-mortem pregnancy”.
• This anomalous notion is motivated by the adoption of “brain death” as the legal or clinical definition of death, where the mother is deemed dead but is evidently sufficiently biologically alive to carry the fetus as far as viability.

Footnote 16:

• Doubtless of very dubious relevance, but you never know.

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Table of the Previous 7 Versions of this Note:

Date	Length	Title
06/07/2023 00:43:12	4189	Pregnancy
20/09/2022 11:24:00	3867	Pregnancy
11/05/2022 18:59:02	3486	Pregnancy
16/02/2021 01:00:29	3274	Pregnancy
29/12/2019 12:57:36	2679	Pregnancy
10/10/2018 16:43:41	4772	Pregnancy
31/08/2017 19:35:02	1325	Pregnancy

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Note last updated	Reading List for this Topic	Parent Topic
02/03/2026 07:20:23	None available	Fetuses

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Summary of Notes Referenced by This Note

Abortion	Animalism	Awaiting Attention (Personal Identity)	Brain Death	Embryo
Fetuses	Fission	Fusion	Individual	Intuition
Note Links Explanation	Plug Note Apologia	Works Read - Explanation	Zygote

To access information, click on one of the links in the table above.

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Summary of Notes Citing This Note

Abortion, 2, 3	Aeon Papers, 2, 3, 4	Animalism - Objections, 2, 3	Connectedness vs Continuity	Existential Passage
Fusion	PID Note, Book & Paper Usage, 2, 3	Sortals	Status: Personal Identity (2025 - December), 2	Status: Priority Task List (2026 - February), 2
Status: Summary (2025 - December), 2	Thesis - Chapter 04 (Basic Metaphysical Issues)	Thesis - Chapter 05 (Persistence and Time)	Thesis - Chapter 08 (Arguments against Animalism), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11	Thesis - Chapter 10 (Thought Experiments)
Thesis - Personal Identity, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9	Website Generator Documentation - Functors, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6	Zygote

To access information, click on one of the links in the table above.

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Authors, Books & Papers Citing this Note

Author	Title	Medium	Extra Links	Read?
Beckwith (Francis J.)	Defending Abortion Philosophically: A Review of David Boonin's A Defense of Abortion	Paper
Bermudez (Jose Luis)	The Moral Significance of Birth	Paper
Brody (Baruch)	Abortion and the Sanctity of Human Life: Introduction	Paper	2	Yes
Cooper (Rachel)	Why Hacking is Wrong about Human Kinds	Paper
Davis (Michael)	Fetuses, Famous Violinists, and the Right to Continued Aid	Paper
DeGrazia (David)	Human Identity and Bioethics: Introduction	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7	Yes
English (Jane)	Abortion and the Concept of a Person	Paper	2
Fenwick (Peter) & Fenwick (Elizabeth)	The Truth in the Light: An Investigation of Over 300 Near-Death Experiences	Book		Yes
Finn (Suki)	Bun or bump?	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5	Yes
Ford (Norman)	The Human Individual Begins After Implantation	Paper
Forrester (Mary)	Problems and Persons: Introduction	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
Forrester (Mary)	The Central Feature of Personhood	Paper
Frohlich (Joel)	When does the first spark of human consciousness ignite?	Paper		Yes
Grobstein (Clifford)	Science and the Unborn: Choosing Human Futures	Paper
Hains (Brigid) & Hains (Paul)	Aeon: 2019+	Paper	2, 3, 4	Yes
Hershenov (David)	How a Hylomorphic Metaphysics Constrains the Abortion Debate	Paper
Isaac (Sasha)	Is artificial-womb technology a tool for women’s liberation?	Paper		Yes
Jones (D. Gareth)	The Human Embryo: Between Oblivion and Meaningful Life	Paper
Kazez (Jean)	The Philosophical Parent: Asking the Hard Questions About Having and Raising Children	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5	Yes
Kingma (Elselijn)	BUMP: Better Understanding the Metaphysics of Pregnancy (B1)	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58	Yes
Koritansky (Peter)	The Role of Philosophy in the Contemporary Abortion Debate.	Paper	2
Lizza (John)	Persons, Humanity, & the Definition of Death	Book
Ludwig (Arnold)	How do we Know who we are? Prologue	Paper	2, 3, 4	Yes
Malinowska (Kasia) & Medley (Bethany)	Want to reduce drug use? Listen to women drug users	Paper		Yes
Marquis (Don)	Why Abortion is Immoral	Paper
Martinho-Truswell (Antone)	How like the kiwi we are	Paper		Yes
McMahan (Jeff)	Beginnings	Paper
Meincke (Anne Sophie)	N/A	Author
Narayanan (Darshana)	Baby talk	Paper		Yes
Parsons (Tony)	The Family Way	Book	2, 3
Profet (Margie)	Pregnancy sickness as adaptation: A deterrent to maternal ingestion of teratogens	Paper	2
Scott (Rosamund)	The Pregnant Woman and the Good Samaritan: Can a Woman have a Duty to Undergo a Caesarean Section?	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Abortion	Paper	2, 3	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Animalism - Objections	Paper	2, 3	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 04 (Basic Metaphysical Issues)	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 05 (Persistence and Time)	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 08 (Arguments against Animalism)	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 10 (Thought Experiments)	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Connectedness vs Continuity	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Fusion	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Personal Identity	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Sortals	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Zygote	Paper		Yes
Vehmas (Simo)	Is it Wrong to Deliberately Conceive or Give Birth to a Child with Mental Retardation?	Paper
Velleman (David)	Beyond Price: Essays on Life and Death - Introduction	Paper		Yes
Warner (Marina)	Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and Cult of the Virgin Mary	Book
Westcott (Brooke Foss)	An Introduction to the Study of the Gospels	Book
Wiseman (P.J.)	The Colophon	Paper

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References & Reading List

Author	Title	Medium	Source	Read?
Brody (Baruch)	Abortion and the Sanctity of Human Life : a Philosophical View	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	4%
Brody (Baruch)	Abortion and the Sanctity of Human Life: Introduction	Paper - Cited	Brody - Abortion and the Sanctity of Human Life : a Philosophical View, 1975, Introduction	Yes
Davis (Michael)	Fetuses, Famous Violinists, and the Right to Continued Aid	Paper - Cited	Philosophical Quarterly, 1983, Vol. 33 Issue 132, p259-278, 20p	No
Finn (Suki)	Bun or bump?	Paper - Cited	Aeon, 27 July, 2017	Yes
Frohlich (Joel)	When does the first spark of human consciousness ignite?	Paper - Referencing	Aeon, 29 October 2024	Yes
Hains (Brigid) & Hains (Paul)	Aeon: C-F	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	51%
Hains (Brigid) & Hains (Paul)	Aeon: Follow-up Boxes	Book - Referencing (via Paper Referencing)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	100%
Hains (Brigid) & Hains (Paul)	Aeon: G-K	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	31%
Horn (Claire)	The history of the incubator makes a sideshow of mothering	Paper - Cited	Aeon, 2020	Yes
Isaac (Sasha)	Is artificial-womb technology a tool for women’s liberation?	Paper - Cited	Aeon, 18 December, 2019	Yes
Kazez (Jean)	The Philosophical Parent: Asking the Hard Questions About Having and Raising Children	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	Yes
Kazez (Jean)	The Philosophical Parent: Asking the Hard Questions About Having and Raising Children	Paper - Cited	Kazez (Jean) - The Philosophical Parent: Asking the Hard Questions About Having and Raising Children	Yes
Kingma (Elselijn)	BUMP: Better Understanding the Metaphysics of Pregnancy (B1)	Paper - Cited	Southampton University Website	Yes
Kingma (Elselijn)	Lady Parts: The Metaphysics of Pregnancy	Paper - Cited	Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements, Volume 82 (Metaphysics) - July 2018, pp. 165-187	Yes
Kingma (Elselijn)	Were You Part of Your Mother?	Paper - Cited	Mind, Volume 128, Issue 511, July 2019, Pages 609–646	Yes
Lizza (John)	Persons, Humanity, & the Definition of Death	Book - Cited	Lizza (John) - Persons, Humanity, & the Definition of Death	2%
Ludwig (Arnold)	How do we Know who we are? A Biography of the Self	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	3%
Ludwig (Arnold)	How do we Know who we are? Prologue	Paper - Cited	Ludwig - How do we Know who we are? A Biography of the Self	Yes
Lyerly (Anne Drapkin), Little (Margaret Olivia), Etc.	Risk and the pregnant body	Paper - Cited	The Hastings Center Report, Vol. 39, No. 6 (Nov. - Dec., 2009), pp. 34-42	11%
Martinho-Truswell (Antone)	How like the kiwi we are	Paper - Referencing	Aeon, 11 April 2023	Yes
Narayanan (Darshana)	Baby talk	Paper - Referencing	Aeon, 25 July 2024	Yes
O'Hear (Anthony), Ed.	Metaphysics	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	8%
Olson (Eric)	The Human Animal - Personal Identity Without Psychology	Book - Cited	Olson (Eric) - The Human Animal - Personal Identity Without Psychology	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Abortion	Paper - Referencing		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 08 (Arguments against Animalism)	Paper - Referencing		Yes

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Text Colour Conventions

1. Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2026

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