When is a 'fetus' considered 'human'?

Question

assuming for a second that I am seeking an abortion (I am a fella, and am pro-life, so I am not). I want to be moral, so I don't want to 'kill' a child. When does the fetus become my child? How do I know the cut-off time, to be sure that I abort the 'fetus' and not kill my child?

When does the woman's body become the carrier of a child? When is it no longer her exclusive 'right' to decide the life/death of the child?

d_chino - so if my 2 year old can't survive outside the womb un-assisted? I've hear this one a number of times, and it just doesn't make any sense. I don't think my 5 year old would have better then 50/50 chance of survival outside the womb on his own - so is he a child?

giggly - I agree that we need to make our world safe for the defenseless. I am making an effort. The reasons you gave for having an abortion are disturbing - so do these reasons make sense to you?

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Giggly - thanks for your additional comments.

Answer 1

At the moment of conception the sperm and the egg unite to form 23 pairs of chromosomes. At this point nearly all doctors and scientists will consider the fertilized egg a human. The debate over abortion really centers on when a fetus becomes a person. This is just semantics and a way to argue based on man made definition.

Answer 2

When the fetus becomes 3 month by law, its human. Most people think its human and is really just undeveloped, at the time the spirm furtilizes the egg. There are 3 trimesters every 3 months, it is recommended that you abort a fetus before it becomes 3 months because you can tell its a little person and if you reach the 2nd trimester to abort a baby then is crazy because the Dr. literally has to pull the baby apart and destroy the fetus. So you tell me? Do it before it looks like a little person or wait until it is a little person and then brutally rip it apart in the womb before it aborts officially? It is very cruel and a horrible way to die. Now if there is a medical problem and the mom is in danger health wise with it yes I believe in aborting for that reason. The womans body becomes a carrier of the child the second that the egg is furtilized, you do have an exculsive right to it when its your body and the life/death of the child is up to the person who is pregnant. That is the law.Take care Heather

Answer 3

I am pro-choice, I live in a country where abortion is legally performed.

Wikipedia (I am sure I could find some other sources) tells me at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fetus :
The first measurable signs of EEG activity occur in the 12th week.

Personally, this would be my limit (note: for me personally. Let's make this clear). However, the law in my country says different:

In the Netherlands, abortion performed by a certified clinic or hospital is effectually allowed at any point between conception and viability, subject to counseling and a five-day waiting period. In practice, abortions are performed until approximately 24 weeks into pregnancy, although this limit is the topic of ongoing discussion among physicians in the Netherlands, since nowadays a fetus is sometimes considered viable prior to 24 weeks. As a result of this debate, hardly any abortions are performed after 22 weeks of pregnancy. Abortions after the first trimester must be performed in a hospital.

Now, I don't know if you've even been through such a decision process, but it is not easy. I'm a guy so I can only speak from second-hand experience but it's not like a woman having an abortion is trying on a new pair of shoes or something. It's not a frivolous thing. Anyone going through something like that must have some damn good reasons.

Answer 4

Ah! the great abortion debate! I'd suppose a feotus is human at conception. Would that make a miscarriage some kind of manslaughter? For me the issue becomes critical with awareness - which I understand is some time in the first trimester. One might argue the father has always some "rights" in the child, apart from the mother's. But "rights" are measured by responsibility; and mothers have the greatest, inescapable, burden of that not only for birth but for nurture. So to abort or bear is mother's decision - and has nothing to do with other people's ideaological concepts of morals or anything else. Broadly, decisions belong to those who will most have to live (or die) with the consequences. We all may need help to envisage those - but bogeyman stories from religion etc are no help. I think modern societies have strange and confused ideas about death, and when it's warranted, and when not. Some would prevent abortion even if the babe grows motherless. Not me. Life requires some difficult decisions. That's faith.

Answer 5

That's a tough question. Some think the minute the sperm meets the egg, some when the fetus is developed enough to live outside the womb, some not until the fetus draws it's first breath. I personally think when it is developed enough that it could live outside the womb.

The only thing that any couple can do, is make the best decision they can for the circumstances, and that is all anyone has a right to ask them.

Answer 6

All women became potential carriers of a child at their own birth. With regard to creation, the minute a woman and man are born they are potential creators of human life. To stop a potential life is equal to abortion in that it is stopping a potential life from being born. Both failing to create a child with all possible eggs and aborting a fetus, kill potential life. It is simply a question of how far back into the process one wishes to go.

In early human history, only intercourse created life. Later on man increased his ability to control fertilization thereby increasing his responsibility to force more people to have more children. Anyone that does not forcibly make all eggs into fetuses is killing potential human life. This is even truer with the advent of test tube babies and surrogate mothers. So basically anyone that does not use all potential eggs is a murderer. The only question that remains is if it is morally right to allow some eggs to be killed. Is it OK to kill a potential life before fertilization? It could be that that egg would be a famous scientist or evangelical preacher. When you kill that egg, you are killing a potential beating heart. And the brain waves of that egg are only days away of being recorded. Some believe that it is OK to allow the future brain of this future child to be crushed and sucked out of the woman. So it is true that no potential fetus should be allowed to die. It is therefore true that a woman begins carrying a child from the moment of her birth when it is determined that she is a woman with eggs.

The obvious answer to your question is that you should not be allowed to kill any egg. If you have a daughter it is important that she have intercourse as soon as possible before she becomes a murderer. You should rape as many women as possible before those women become killers of potential human life.

Or perhaps you should rethink your position that potential human life is the same as human life.

Answer 7

Technically from the beginning because it is a human fetus. But I'd recommend getting an abortion early because it is not good to do it late in pregnancy. But one can only assume this. I'm pro-choice, but I still do think there is a cut off, such as when it starts to move around, you should probably not abort it. I'm just thinking that may be the humane thing to do, before it's brain is fully developed.

Answer 8

There is no cut-off time. It becomes a life at conception. Abortion exists in our society because people value materialism over life. An unplanned child can interfere with a persons standard of living.

There is no way out for you. You have to decide what you value more: the life of your child, or the life you have yet to live-which only exists in your head.

Answer 9

from the moment of conception- the heart is beating at 3 weeks after conception- brain waves can be detected at around 6 weeks. I Before the woman finds out she is pregnant she is already a mother to a child. When that same women loses her baby to a miscarriage it is a baby- so how could it not be a babyi if she choses to abort? I heard something today that really says it all- "A baby is a gift-not a choice"!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 10

A fetus is considered human at birth. It may be technically living cells at conception, but it is not concious and cannot feel. it is alive in the same way cancer cells are alive. After it is born, it is a baby, not before.