Singer argues that "despite many individual exceptions, humanists have on the whole been unable to free themselves from one of the most central of these Christian dogmas: the prejudice of
speciesism." as well as conflict with common philosophical intuition. In one such feature of his philosophy, Singer argues that
fetuses and even
newborn humans are not yet
persons, and therefore do not have the same rights as an adult human or any other person. Thus, the
right to life does not apply to fetuses according to Singer's
preference utilitarianism as a non-person can not have preferences (see
Singer on abortion, euthanasia, and infanticide). On the other hand, Michael Tooley distinguished between creatures that only have the
possibility of becoming a person as he defined it (e.g. fetuses, or
spermatozoa and an
ovum) and a creature that already has that capacity, and is already owed moral consideration accordingly (e.g. a sleeping person). have argued for parents to be allowed to kill their newborn babies because they are not "actual persons" and have received criticism for that position. ==Other uses==