[Vision2020] Human embryo is not a baby

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today’s Moscow-Pullman Daily News with special thanks to Nick Gier, the Palouse Pundit.

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Human embryo is not a baby

This is a response to Dale Courtney’s column on abortion from July 6.
First, let’s get something straight: The human embryo is not a baby. At one month it is indistinguishable from a pig embryo. Furthermore, an ape fetus could easily be mistaken as a human one. See bit.ly/3uaZgNh.
 
Courtney believes that God is a person, but what does God have in common with humans? It is certainly not anything biological, so this proves that genetic identity is not personal identity. Personhood is a moral, and, for humans (and absurdly, corporations), alegal category.
 
For unbelievers there is another easy way to make this point. The fertilized zygote can twin up to 16 days, and twins of course have the same genetic identity. They are now, however, two potential persons waiting for civil authorities to grant them moral and legal status.
 
There is nothing shocking or radical about the English common law on abortion that Justice Alito dishonestly brushed aside. This law, obviously assumed by the writers of the Constitution, allowed abortion up to the time of quickening, as late as 24 weeks for some women.
 
Courtney argues that any line one draws in fetal development is arbitrary, so the zygote must be protected from conception on. The conceptus, however, has no qualities that would define it as a person.
 
I agree with him that viability will be pushed back by medical technology, and quickening is even more variable. For a very long time I’ve argued that the explosive brain development between 25 and 33 weeks is a nonarbitrary cutoff point for fetal feeling and mental life. See webpages.uidaho.edu/ngier/fetalbrain.htm.
 
Courtney defames former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, trained as a pediatric neurologist, when he claims that Northam defended abortion on the delivery table. This has been declared false by Reuters FackCheck, Politifact, FackCheck.org and Snopes.
 
Nick Gier
Moscow

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Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .

"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)
http://www.MoscowCares.net

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

“A stranger is just a friend you haven’t met.”
- Roy E. Stolworthy
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