What is a person? The Shifting Definition of Sentience.

Being a person confers certain natural rights: Identity, voice, ownership, lineage, station. It is the entity of taxation, of action, of legality, of responsibility and of reward. Yet the inquiry into "what is a person" can be a much broader one, especially in an era of rapidly shifting distinctions between human, animal and machine capabilities. Initially, it may seem like "what is a person" has a clear answer: A person is an individual Homo sapiens, who is naturally born and naturally dies. Yet the lines are blurring.