Can anyone tell me the difference (morally, not scientifically) between a fetus and a baby?

Question

I'm so tired of hearing about how having an abortion is not murder..The baby is inside of a woman...moving...has a brain...able to suck its thumb...has a heartbeat...To me that's a baby...I believe if the mothers health is at risk, and its not a late term pregnancy...but just to have an abortion because its an inconveinance...I don't understand how a doctor, much less a mother can lay there while the doctor pulls your baby out...all but the face, and continue to poke a tube through the back of the neck to suck out the brains...It's gruesome..but thats what late term abortion is...

Is the truth of how the procedure is done hard to swallow?I'm not trying to scare anyone...I'm just wondering why people think its ok
http://www.straight-talk.net/abortion/partial.shtml

so your telling me that in the split second that it takes for a baby to take its first breath it FINALLY knows its alive???lol

I was just wondering since people keep saying a fetus cant survive on its own....what takes place in the few seconds it takes a baby to travel the birth canal, to make the baby able to survive on its own...even then, the baby needs to be taken care of.....so whats your answer?

Answer 1

As for me, you are preaching to the choir. I see no difference in the existential humanity of a person before or after it has passed through a birth canal. Likewise, I can appreciate no change in the live human state between the second before uterine implantation when compared to the second after uterine implantation. This is all a head game played by people who support killing for convenience and for cloning for fruitless embryonic stem cell research.

Answer 2

A fetus is in the womb, springing up right into a human toddler. a toddler is totally stepped forward (with any luck) and has been pushed, or taken, from the womb. A fetus demands the sustenance provided by its direct connection to the mum. a toddler can stay to tell the story, with care from others, devoid of the mum.

Answer 3

The difference between a fetus and a baby is a fetus can't live on it's own. Yes, premature fetuses do survive but only with huge amounts of intensive care. Fetuses at an earlier stage of pregnancy can be likened more to parasites than people. I'm not saying that to be mean, I wouldn't have an abortion myself. But there is a scientific difference between a fetus and a baby and that's it.

Answer 4

If you are familiar with the law, you will know that late term abortions are not generally legal for exactly that reason you site, they are too much like a baby at that point. Less than 1% of abortions are that type you are describing. This rare type is usually done in extreme cases to save the life of the mother. Describing it as though it's the usual method is misinformation. However, that is a common scare tactic used by the anti-choice people to dissuade women from getting abortions at any stage of the pregnancy.

There exists a section of society who would prefer to take away reproductive freedom & force women to have large families before they are ready. It is not good for the woman & it's not good for society. It leads to poverty and limits the educational & economical opportunities for everyone in the family. Culturally, it would set our country back many decades. It would also put many woman at risk for dying from self-induced abortions or back alley abortions.

So, assuming that we are referring to early, safe, & legal abortion, I will attempt to answer your question. Early abortion was legalized to assure that every child born would be a "wanted child" and to guarantee women control over their health & reproductive systems, such as how many children, if any, to bear, and when. Sexuality is a part of being human. To suggest people should not have sex is unrealistic. Birth control is not 100% effective. Early abortions are 9 times safer than full-term delivery when performed in a clean safe enviroment by a qualified doctor.

You ask about "murder." That is killing another person. In order to BE another person, you have to be a separate independent being. Fetuses are not qualified for "personhood." In fact, http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=fetus the fetus stage does not even begin until the end of the 2nd month, and it goes thru to the end of pregnancy. At the end of pregnancy and delivery, they are officially a baby. Before the end of the 2nd month, they are an embryo.

Most abortions are in the first trimester of pregnancy. At that stage it is still a glob of cells. It does not have feelings. It cannot think. It is not moving. It does not even have a thumb to suck or a mouth to put a thumb in! It can not survive on its own. Sure it has the POTENTIAL to develop into a person. That's like asking if an acorn is an oak tree. It is not. Sure, it has the potential to become one if the conditions are there. Every acorn will not become an oak tree any more than every embryo will become a baby. It should not be classified in the same category because it is NOT one. Nature spontaneously aborts 1/3 of all pregnancies anyways.

Now for a baby: A baby is a person who is already born. It can breathe & survive on its own. It is a fully developed entity who is separate from its mother. It has all the rights afforded personhood. The law recognizes this fact.

For the record, a premature born baby will generally not survive if born before the last trimester of pregnancy. Those that do, have developmental problems which are sometimes permanent. They need intensive neo-natal care for approximately the amount of time till they would have been born.

In our country we do not force women to endure pregnancy and delivery if that is not what she wants to do at that time. We recognize that her health & her reproduction, for whatever reason, is her choice. We also recognize that some women prefer, for whatever reason, to allow all of their pregnancies to continue to full term. Either is acceptable. If somebody is against abortion (usually because of their religion) the best advice for them is, don't get one then. If you do get one, do it early, in the first trimester.

Answer 5

There is no scientific way to say when human life begins. There for I think it is a moral imperative that we assume that it begins at the moment of conception. Thus I am oppossed to abortion.

And therefor I consider all fetuses to be un-born babies. A fetus becomes a baby once it is born.

Answer 6

A newborn, term infant, will die if not dried, kept warm, and fed.
So, the whole argument that a fetus is dependent upon the mother and is a parasite, is wrong.

My issue is this, pregnancy is preventable. If you don't want to have a baby, don't get pregnant. THERE LIES THE CHOICE.

Answer 7

No, nobody can *tell* you the moral difference -- that's a question you have to settle for yourself. Moral questions are about what you feel and believe, so it's up to you to decide.

By the same token, you shouldn't judge why other people want or need abortions. Yes, sometimes it's "inconvenience," but even when that's a motivation it's always more complicated than that.

Here's how I decide: First, medically what's in there is in no way a "baby" (any more than the muscle in my toe is, it's just a bunch of cells) until at least 20 weeks or so. Up until that point, I have no problem with abortion, any more than I do with throwing away leftover fertilized eggs from in-vitro fertilization. It's just a "potential" baby at that point.
After about 25 weeks, it could survive on its own outside the womb, so that's when I consider it a baby.

Still, no matter what *I* think, it's up to each woman to make her own decision, not up to me to make it for her. And the law agrees with me.
Yes, it's a difficult subject -- so decide for yourself how you feel about it morally, then give other people the same consideration even if they decide differently than you do. :)

Answer 8

A baby is outside the womb, breathing on its own, and has the legal status of a human being.

A fetus is still inside the womb and has the legal status of a parasite.

So if we LEGALLY require the pregnancy to continue, we are saying, morally and legally, that a fertile womb is public property, a natural resouce like the timber in the National Forests, and that a woman has no control over her body, the government is in charge of that.

A lack of privacy and individual freedom is even more gruesome than abortion.

Answer 9

In my opinion there is no difference morally or scientifically between a fetus and a baby. They are the same.

Answer 10

Most people of faith agree with you. You will never win this argument against non-believers. They will not hear, see, feel, or believe anything that interferes with what they choose to do and how they choose to live their lives.

They will not allow a baby to impose on them in anyway, and will kill if need be. It's just that simple.