what traits do you think ought to be associated with personhood AV?
That depends on what you mean by traits; more on that in a second.
you mentioned dreams, wishes, fears etc...but a person in a comma or even some elderly could be said to not posses those, shoot even a new born could be said to not possess those
I don't think I mentioned any of those things; I certainly didn't in this thread.
so what attributes do you associate with personhood?
Personhood is a topic that has been debated for centuries, and it's still not entirely settled - that is, there is no "bright line" that we can draw past which one is a person such that we
all agree. Personally, I think that self-awareness, self-consciousness and self-determination are critical components of personhood. I'm not prepared to say that
lacking those things automatically implies one is not a person, but if you asked me to distill what I think the defining characteristics of a person are in my opinion, those three would be my answer.
In a sense I'd rather err on the side of caution and ascribe personhood to a non-person instead of the opposite. That is my first instinct when it comes to fetuses too. I may not necessarily be convinced that they are persons and therefore, I should err on the side of caution. But instincts can't be the basis of a rational decision that we want others to adapt. "I feel it" doesn't cut it. It's important that we be rational and be able to justify and defend our decisions logically.
As I said before, these are
difficult and deeply philosophical questions. They are questions that we may not be able to answer sufficiently in our lifetimes - or perhaps, ever.
I would be curious - what is your position? What constitutes a person, in your view and how do you distinguish a person from a non-person?