A fetus is a baby is a fetus is a baby
Guest-bloggers on AndrewSullivan.com are looking at the goofy semantics battle going on in the press over the crazy lady who cut a baby (ooops...8-month old fetus) out of a pregnant woman's belly. I like this note from Townhall.com's Rich Lowry.
Note how a "fetus" -- something for which American law and culture has very little respect -- was somehow instantly transformed into a "baby" and "infant" -- for which we have the highest respect. By what strange alchemy does that happen?
I don't know if American law has "little" respect for fetuses considering it's now a federal law that a person who kills a pregnant woman can be charged with two murders. But, interesting stuff nonetheless.
5 Comments:
I think at 8 months it should be considered a baby. Isn't it fully developed by then anyway?
Isn't the obvious difference inside and outside the woman?
I have more thoughts on that, but that's the first thing that springs to mind.
My Official Stance: If it can survive outside the woman's body it's a baby. If not, feel free to abort all you want.
To me it just seems wholly illogical and anti-science to say that because two-inches of skin separates an eight, or nine-month old baby from the outside world, it's not fully human or alive.
And with that, I've said my peace. I will not argue abortion on this site.
Meh. Seems like no argument necessary. I don't think most people would argue for legal abortion of a 9 month fetus (I'm also pretty sure that's illegal).
I think, though, you might be misunderstanding science. Science doesn;t deal in semantics, it deals in particular facts and theorems. I'm pretty sure that medical science refers to it as a fetus until it leaves the womb, and for purposes of scientific definition that is probably the best possible definition of a fetus.
Politics, on the other hand, is all about semantics. Which is why Republicans made up "partial birth abortion" which is not a medical term, and didn't exist at all until it was invented to sound scary. For political and legislative purposes I suppose it is worthwhile to call it a baby, rather than a fetus) once it is in the third trimester, ie viable without the mother.
I just realized it was stupid of me to say "I will not argue about abortion" when I posted this article on abortion. I guess I posted it more as a look at euphemistic language/political correctness/semantics. But really, separating the issue of abortion from those things is next to impossible. Silly me.
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