Is it a Fetus or a Baby or Both?
Is that unborn human a fetus, a baby, or both?
I watched this video a few days ago from Daily Wire personality Michael Knowles where he had a 2ish-hour debate with pro-abortion activist, Brontë Remsik. Honestly, it was one of the most frustrating videos I’ve watched in the past six months.
If I remember correctly, Remsik is a third-year medical student. She claims to hold the pro-abortion position because the medical and scientific evidence support both the need for abortion and the upstanding morality of it.
Interestingly, she admits the unborn baby is actually a human life and acknowledges that an abortion ends that human life.
Also interesting, most of her other scientific and medical claims are incorrect. I’ll elaborate about two of them.
During the interview, she repeatedly said that a 9-week gestational age baby is “microscopic” and too small to see with the naked eye. I have personally seen a 9-week gestational age baby outside of the womb in front of me and I can attest that 1) I didn’t need a microscope to see it, and 2) it looked a lot like a person. That baby had arms, legs, fingers, toes, eyes, and a remarkably human face.
In fact, according to AmericanPregnancy.org, a 9-week preborn baby is about the size of a grape, measuring around 1.6 inches from head to rump. Last I checked, 1.6 inches is much larger than microscopic.
That chafed me a little. Another thing that chafed me even more was how she kept asserting the unborn baby wasn’t actually a baby. Rather, it was a fetus.
Remsik acknowledged that the unborn person was human, but repeatedly and confidently said that calling the baby a baby “humanized it” and that “fetus” was a more accurate term.
I wasn’t aware that humanizing a human was a bad thing, but I digress.
I’ve had many similar pro-abortion/pro-life discussions with people and this issue of “it’s not a baby; it’s a fetus” is one that continually nags at me.
Firstly, “fetus” refers to a stage of development, much like how toddler, infant, newborn, adolescent, or child all refer to stages of development. A fetus isn’t its own independent category of being anymore than an infant is its own independent category of being. The term “fetus” is simply the description of a developmental stage. Specifically, they’re all developmental stages of humans.
Secondly, the notion that “ending a pregnancy is okay because it’s just a fetus and not an actual person” is ridiculous, intellectually inconsistent, anti-science, and anti-human equality. That fetus is still just as human as a newborn and toddler and you and me.
So, it’s my (intellectually consistent) rebuttal that:
1) We all have inherent value and worth because we’re humans made in the image of God.
2) It’s never okay to intentionally kill innocent human life because we all have inherent value and worth.
3) Abortion intentionally kills innocent human life which has inherent value and worth.
Questions? Comments? Concerns? Opinions? Comment below or shoot an email to Adam@LetsDigress.com! And please, be kind and grammatically decent.