It’s Personhood Week here on Only Human. Today’s installment is about young people: When do they get autonomy? When do their decisions count?

Yesterday’s post was about conception, and tomorrow’s will be about the identification of dead bodies. Thursday goes to non-human animals, and Friday to neuroscientists who argue that “personhood” is a convenient, if illusory construction of the human brain.

I’d love to hear about how you guys define personhood, and why. Feel free to leave comments on these posts, or jump in to the #whatisaperson conversation on Twitter.

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In 1891, the U.S. Supreme Court heard a case about negligence that was really about personhood.

The plaintiff, the Union Pacific Railway Company, was asking the court to force a woman, Clara Botsford,