Natural person
In
jurisprudence, a
natural person is a human being perceptible through the senses and subject to physical laws, as opposed to an
artificial person, i.e., an organization that the law treats for some purposes as if it were a
person distinct from its members or owners.
For example, such legal provisions as
Amendment XIX to the
US Constitution, which guarantees a woman's right to vote, apply to natural persons only. In many cases fundamental
human rights are implicitly granted only to natural persons; for example a corporation cannot hold public office, but it can file a
lawsuit.
Although
science fiction has long fantasized about the possibility of sentient
robots (e.g.
androids) living among humans, no court to date has dealt with the question of whether such a being would be considered a "natural" person.
