In this 2014 blog post and this 2023 blog post, I mull over which is the better choice, individual or human being.
Here’s what I say in the 2014 post about individual and person:
I find natural person too legalistic to use in contracts. Using human being instead isn’t a sober option. I use individual. Garner’s Dictionary of Legal Usage says that “individual is best confined to contexts in which the writer intends to distinguish the single (noncorporate) person from the group or crowd.” But the parenthetical in the quoted sentence demonstrates why its preferred choice, person, wouldn’t work in contracts.
And here’s what I say in the 2023 post about human being:
[R]egarding human being, what’s my problem! Individual connotes distinguishing a single person from a group or crowd. (See Garner’s Modern English Usage 594 (5th ed. 2023).) That’s not relevant for contracts. If what you’re concerned about is distinguishing human beings from legal entities (or whatever word you wish to use to express that concept), why not just say human being?
Also in favor of human being is that Black’s Law Dictionary gives “A human being” as the noncorporate definition of person.
But in the 2023 post, I go on to say, “On the other hand, the noun human will sound odd until such time people get used to it.” I close by saying, “For now, I’m satisfied with identifying the issue. I’ll see how it plays out.”
Well, I’ve seen enough. I’ve gotten used to human being. For one thing, I and, I assume, every other online denizen is regularly asked to confirm they’re a human being. The image at the top is an example of that.
And human being is out there, although far less often than individual:
And it’s in this example:
But why? Instead of using the defined term Natural Person and defining it to mean a human being, just say human being!
I wouldn’t use human as a noun (a human) or an adjective (as in that captcha) instead of using it in the noun phrase human being. Human might be used as a noun more often in the plural, as in early humans, than in the singular. When it’s used in the singular, it can sound like science fiction—Where is the human! And human used as an adjective expresses a second sense, human-like, that wouldn’t be pertinent for purposes of contracts.
