The question of embryohood Appeared in BioNews 1093 Students of bioethics sometimes imagine that the philosophical, moral and legal status of the human embryo is reducible to the single question: 'Is the human embryo a person?' In English law, a human being is regarded as a 'natural person' from the moment he or she is born alive. Yet, this is hard to justify philosophically. The problem with framing the status of the embryo as a question of 'personhood' is partly due to the difficulties of establishing an adequate philosophical definition of the 'person'. A preoccupation with this question may also distract us from other questions that are equally necessary for understanding the human embryo. A recent BioNews article by Julian Hitchcock (see BioNews 1089) reminds us that even before asking about the moral or legal status of the embryo, we need to know how to distinguish embryos from non-embryos. Prior to the question of 'personhood' is the question of 'embryohood'.