Before conception?

Here's something to blow your little mind: a poll I capped from fetus-fetishist Jill Stanek's blog -- the question was "When does "personhood" begin:

The significance of this poll is that it asks not when life begins, but when "personhood" begins, and there is a difference. Even I can grasp the position that some form of "life" begins at fertilization (though I'd argue its significance, especially given that many of these "lives" are naturally expelled with the next period) -- but "personhood" in the petri dish? So say over half the poll's respondents.

But never mind that -- even more astonishingly, over 1/4 of the respondents think "personhood" begins before conception, a school of thought supposedly backed up by some biblical scripture (Jer. 1:5):

"5Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations."

"Personhood" before conception? There was a time when you only saw things like that in Monty Python films.

And I wonder what the respondents who chose "Other" had in mind. Maybe I don't want to know.