Abortion
I just finished reading a column (it's in hebrew, unfortunately, so I won't link to it) from a man whose wife just aborted their potential third child. By the way, there seems to be a bit of a language barrier here, I just couldn't find a non-awkward way to phrase that last statement.
Anyway, without getting into the pro-life/pro-choice argument, I have a question.
Humans are, as far as I know, the only mammal whose babies are born "not ready for the world"; that is, every other mammal's babies are born essentially fully capable of functioning in the outside world (if you have ever seen a fowl getting up on their shaking legs an hour or two after birth you'll know what it means). The reason for this is the size of human babies' heads. Had they been "allowed" by nature to be born when they should (after 12 months instead of 9), they would not be able to make it through the birth canal. That's also why quite a few doctors and researchers call the first 3 months of a baby's life "the fourth trimester"; a human baby really isn't really "ready" for the outside world until after that period if over.
With that said, it is entirely obvious that a human baby cannot survive on their own before it is born; heck, they can't really survive on their own for quite some time after birth. Which leads me to my question (warning, I'm getting philosophical here):
If a baby isn't "done" before they are three months old, can they really be termed an independent entity even before they are born? Or are they simply part of the mother, essentially an extra, say, limb?
This pondering leads to many other interesting questions, such as whether brutalizing of a pregnant woman that results in a miscarriage should be considered murder. I have no idea how to answer them, but it seems like this would be at the root of much of how society treats babies, born and unborn.
And before you state the obvious, the reason (in my eyes anyway) it matters that human babies are born too early is that it presents a much clearer distinction or separation between whether a baby in the womb is really an individual human. If babies were born ready for the outside world, there would certainly be a much more delicate question of when, exactly, they are "ready". In humans' case, this question does not arise (biologically).
Anyway, without getting into the pro-life/pro-choice argument, I have a question.
Humans are, as far as I know, the only mammal whose babies are born "not ready for the world"; that is, every other mammal's babies are born essentially fully capable of functioning in the outside world (if you have ever seen a fowl getting up on their shaking legs an hour or two after birth you'll know what it means). The reason for this is the size of human babies' heads. Had they been "allowed" by nature to be born when they should (after 12 months instead of 9), they would not be able to make it through the birth canal. That's also why quite a few doctors and researchers call the first 3 months of a baby's life "the fourth trimester"; a human baby really isn't really "ready" for the outside world until after that period if over.
With that said, it is entirely obvious that a human baby cannot survive on their own before it is born; heck, they can't really survive on their own for quite some time after birth. Which leads me to my question (warning, I'm getting philosophical here):
If a baby isn't "done" before they are three months old, can they really be termed an independent entity even before they are born? Or are they simply part of the mother, essentially an extra, say, limb?
This pondering leads to many other interesting questions, such as whether brutalizing of a pregnant woman that results in a miscarriage should be considered murder. I have no idea how to answer them, but it seems like this would be at the root of much of how society treats babies, born and unborn.
And before you state the obvious, the reason (in my eyes anyway) it matters that human babies are born too early is that it presents a much clearer distinction or separation between whether a baby in the womb is really an individual human. If babies were born ready for the outside world, there would certainly be a much more delicate question of when, exactly, they are "ready". In humans' case, this question does not arise (biologically).
posted by Blinkered at 7:18 PM
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