"So, just what is a person, legally?"

Source: Ludes, Francis J. and Gilbert, Harold J. Editor-in-chief and Managing Editor. Corpus Juris Secundum. Volume LXX. Brooklyn, New York: The American Law Book Company, 1951.

[The date, 1951, is very critical for what follows came 'way, 'way before Roe vs. Wade in 1973, o.k.? O.K.! ]

Person [among other things, is] "a living human being (50); a living person, composed of body and soul (51); a self-conscious being (52); a moral agent (53); the whole man (54); etc...etc.."

Notes:

(50) "Similarly defined. A living soul -- U.S. v. Crook, C.C. Neb., 25 F.cas. No. 14,891, 5 Dill. 453, 459."

(51) [Among others] "N.C. -- Morton v. Western Union Tel. Co., 41 S.E. 484, 485, 130 N.C. 299."

(52) [ Plus an Iowa case] "U.S.- U.S. v. Crook, C.C. Neb., 25 F. Cas. No. 14, 891, 5 Dill. 453, 459."

(53) [ Plus Iowa case] "U.S.-U.S. v. Crook, C.C. Neb., 25 F. Cas. No. 14,891, 5 Dill. 453, 459."

(54) [ State cases, among them] "Ala. -- Caldwell v. Wallace, 4 Stew. & P. 282, 285."

End of this fragment from American legal history -- end of this fragment from ...