![]() ![]() This hard biological reality corresponds closely but not precisely to the Supreme Court's 1973 decision that states could not bar abortion until "the point of viability" which was set at around 24 to 28 weeks of pregnancy.īut the moral uncertainties of late-term abortion have no bearing on the question of whether a fetus or a fertilized egg is a person. A science-fiction scenario of an artificial womb in the far future would not change this calculation of natural development. These undeniable facts of embryogenesis establish a second threshold for abortion at or before 23 weeks. No amount of medical intervention before that point of development will change this fundamental fact of biology. Medical advances can only push this point of viability so far back toward conception, because functioning lungs, even if not mature, must be present for a fetus to survive outside the womb. Lungs do not reach full maturity until week 34, and a suite of life-time medical problems can be expected for births before that milestone. The Office of Science and Technology Assessment reported, too, that 10 percent of babies weighing less than 2.2 pounds born before 28 weeks survived. About 10% of babies born at 23 weeks survive. Viability between weeks 23 and 26 is uncertain, but possible. Again, biology speaks loudly: no human baby has ever been successfully delivered before the middle of the 22nd week. We cannot call something human that has no hopes of survival as an independent being. Before week 23, a premature baby cannot survive. Before a fetus is capable of living outside the womb at week 23, even with invasive medical intervention, the line from potential to actual human has not been crossed. Later stages of growth do not offer a sign as clear as brain development, but the fetus provides another point of determination, although one involving a higher emotional and ethical cost in the hierarchy of decision-making. Granting that moment special status is completely arbitrary and meaningless biologically. The moment of fertilization is nothing but one action in a series of millions that take us from a single cell to an independently living being. Both have the potential to become human given the right set of circumstances. A fertilized egg has no special status compared to an egg not fertilized. Ovulation and male masturbation would be acts of murder by the same logic that confers the status of humanness on a fertilized egg or early-stage embryo. All require certain conditions to realize the potential to become human. The small ball of cells is potentially a human being, but so are eggs and sperm, even if to an unequal degree. The belief that a few cells derived from a fertilized egg is a human being is a sad example of good intentions based on misguided notions of biology. Abortion foes claim that the procedure is murder, based on the notion that a fertilized egg has the same suite of rights enjoyed by all humans. ![]()
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