"I don't recall you believing that a fertilized egg was a "baby," as opposed to a blueprint for a person, and I've argued the point frequently enough on SI so that I'll just tell you that my usual responses are to point out that the word "potential" has a meaning: a blueprint isn't a house, a scrambled egg isn't a roast chicken, a fertilized cell, or a cluster of undifferentiated cells, have to do more than "grow" to become a baby. They have to change in kind to become one."
A fertilized egg is not just a potential baby. It is a baby at the beginning of its development. It will become a baby if it grows. Your logic is a little illogical to me somehow. For a blueprint to become a house, a whole lot of people have to gather materials and do construction. A scrambled egg is not a roast chicken, but a fertilized chicken egg would would become a plain old live chicken if no one scrambled it. So you are comparing unlike processes.
All that stuff about the snuff films the religious right has about fetuses being aborted in obvious distress, agony and squirming to get away are true. I actually think every woman should be required to watch such a film and receive psychological counseling, at least briefly, before she has such a procedure.
Women grieve over the loss of a fetus of any gestation, if they realize they are pregnant and do want the baby. They have the same loss, the loss of a baby and all its joy and promise, regardless of how developed the fetus is. |
