Is a fetus human?

[Terrywoodenpic]

A human fetus is a fetus.
A horse fetus is a fetus.
A Fetus does not have rights unless they are established by the law.
In most instances a mother has established rights that supercede any rights that might be ascribed to a fetus.
I am not convinced a child has anything more than potential rights before it is born.

 

[Curious George]

Yes; it is human life.

Human life=/=human being

 

[Maponos]

Human life=/=human being

Yes it does.

 

[Kenny]

The hair on my head is human. My foot is human. My fingernails are human. Being human means very little.

But an individual has rights, an individual is a person.

A fetus is part of someone else.

I do believe a fetus does have certain rights, vague and undefined as they may be. But I believe it is the prerogative of the mother to exercise those rights, or not, on behalf of the fetus. Even if she chooses to abdicate those rights on behalf of the fetus. There is no one else, not the father, not the government, not the church, not any other family member who can exercise these rights on behalf of the fetus. The relationship between a mother and the unborn fetus is unique, no other relationship in human life compares.

(And before you say it, I realise that a fetus is not like hair. That was a crude analogy I admit. )

LOL... well... that sure is a philosophical quagmire IMO left to lawyers to play around with words. But that's just my view.

 

[Curious George]

Yes it does.

Really? What is your definition of human life, and what is your human being?

 

[Spiderman]

Sometimes people have similar regrets about eating meat. Emotional judgements and values vary.

For the Mother that has no guilt about it, I don't see the abortion as a bad thing. You don't want to hear my full explanation as to why

 

[Willamena]

Hi all! I'm just wondering what the general consensus of this forum is about whether or not a fetus is a human being. If your answer is no, please leave a reason or two as to why you answered the way you did. I'm especially interested in the explanations for why a fetus isn't human.

If you believe a fetus isn't human because the brain and other organs aren't fully developed, do you at least believe it is human after birth? So the day prior to birth was it not human?

The word fetus (plural fetuses) is from the Latin fētus (“offspring”, “bringing forth”, “hatching of young”).

Please vote. Thanks!

Everything within the human body is human.

 

[Maponos]

Really? What is your definition of human life, and what is your human being?

Human life = a human. It's a rather simple conclusion for me.

 

[Spiderman]

A human fetus is a fetus.
A horse fetus is a fetus.
A Fetus does not have rights unless they are established by the law.
In most instances a mother has established rights that supercede any rights that might be ascribed to a fetus.
I am not convinced a child has anything more than potential rights before it is born.

I'm not suggesting that a fetus has rights even if it is a human

 

[Deathbydefault]

Yes, though it isn't necessarily a "person" until a certain point.
Where that point is, I do not know. Don't really care to know either.

 

[Spiderman]

Everything within the human body is human.

Not everything within the human body is a human

 

[Curious George]

Human life = a human. It's a rather simple conclusion for me.

Surely a human is not a single called organism. Agree or disagree?

 

[Flame]

Not everything within the human body is a human

Pretty sure my daughter would agree that the spider that was inside her ear canal was not human.

 

[Spiderman]

Okay...when you answer the poll, the question is, is a fetus a human? That is what I meant to say.

 

[Jeremiahcp]

Everything within the human body is human.

Does that include the grilled cheese I had for lunch?

 

[Maponos]

Surely a human is not a single called organism. Agree or disagree?

It's the beginning of human life, so it is inherently human.

 

[Willamena]

Okay...when you answer the poll, the question is, is a fetus a human? That is what I meant to say.

It's a human fetus.

 

[Jeremiahcp]

I don't think this question can be answered until we define what a human is, and that is a question that has been debated for thousands of years. So good luck on pinning that one down.

 

[ADigitalArtist]

To me the fetus becomes human when the soul enters it. Since we as humans can't know when that is, I would put it as when the fetus becomes viable outside the womb, somewhere around 22-24 weeks. Before then I have no problem with abortion. After that, I do. This of course puts me strongly in the minority since I don't subscribe to either extreme.

I'm fine with abortion after 22 weeks if we are defining abortion (which I do) as termination of pregnancy rather than a specific list of medical operations. In which case a mother deciding she can't go on at 23 weeks could deliver to this NICU via c-section and that would be abortion too. What I'm not in favor of is killing a fetus viable outside the womb unless it's for medical reason (eg the act of pushing could cause an embolism and fatal hemorrhaging.)
But I think a mother who says 'I want to stop the pregnancy' should be able to have the fetus removed at any time, imo.

 

[Spiderman]

Does that include the grilled cheese I had for lunch?

Yessssss!