IV. Evidence presented to the Supreme Court proved that the fetus is human.
D. Life commences in the womb at fertilization, not at some magical moment later on.
(1) "This review of the current medical status of the unborn serves as several purposes. Firstly, it shows conclusively the humanity of the fetus by showing that human life is a continuum which commences in the womb. There is no magic birth. The child is as much a child in those several days before birth as he is in those after. Secondly, we have shown that quickening is a relative concept which depends upon the sensitivity of the mother . . . We know that life precedes quickening . . . In spite of these advances some courts and legislatures have continued to use quickening as the point when life is magically infused. No concept could be further from the truth. Thirdly, we have seen that viability is also a flexible standard. Fourthly, we have seen that an unborn child is as much a patient as is the mother. In literature opting for permissive abortion this simple truth is ignored . . . There is no medical mystery on that point." Roe v. Wade, Doe v. Bolton, Supreme Court of the United States, October, 1971. pp. 28-29
(2) A large number of sophisticated tools have been developed that allow the physician to observe and measure the child's reactions from as early as ten weeks. (New equipment is rapidly being developed to reduce this to six weeks and lower. Life not being measurable beyond that is not a sign that life does not exist, but that equipment is not available for the measuring process.)
With the new optical equipment a physician can now look at the amniotic fluid through the cervical canal and predict life-threatening problems.
In the future the physician will undoubtedly be able to look directly at the growing child . . . and thereby diagnose and prescribe specific treatment to heal or prevent illness or deformity. S. Blumenthal et al. "Congenital Arterial Flutter: A Report of a Case Documented by Intrauterine Electrocardiogram," Pediatrics 41, March 1968, p. 659-661. Also Roe v. Wade, Doe v. Bolton, Supreme Court of the United States, October, 1971. p. 27
[to be continued]
