In determining the meaning of any law of Congress, or of any ruling, regulation, or interpretation of the various offices and administrative agencies of the United States, the words “person”, “human being”, “child” and “individual” shall include all infant members of the Homo Sapiens species born alive. His famous discussion began: In law books, as in other books, and in common language, “person” is often used to refer to a human being, but the technical legal meaning of a “person” is a subject of legal rights and duties. Not all legal persons may be natural persons and vice versa; the category of legal persons is clearly different from that of legal persons, but could be considered identical to the category of natural persons. Both companies and individuals are legal entities, but they have different sets of legal rights and obligations.
That law also states that nothing in this section shall be construed to assert, deny, expand, or contract any legal status or legal right applicable to any member of the Homo sapiens species at any time prior to “being born alive”, as defined in this section. Under the law, only a legal person (whether an individual or a legal entity) has legal rights, protections, privileges, responsibilities, and liability. The question of whether an entity should be considered a legal person can be reduced to other questions about whether the entity can and should be subject to a set of legal rights and obligations.
