On Jul 27, 2005, at 4:22 PM, steve v wrote:
Question: Is it POV to say that a fetus is a "human life," and by terminology, thus entitled to universal "human rights" and societal "personhood" status?
At [[Human]], we wrote (though I see it's been changed): "Human life begins at conception ... As the zygote grows through successive stages inside the female's uterus over a period of 38 weeks, it is called an embryo, then a fetus. At birth, the fully grown fetus, now called a baby, is expelled from the female's body, and breathes independently for the first time. At this point, most modern cultures recognize the baby as a person entitled to the full protection of the law, though some jurisdictions extend personhood to human fetuses while they remain in the uterus."
I would say it's NPOV to say that a fetus is human life (what other kind of life could it be if it's a human fetus?), but it's POV to attribute personhood to the fetus, which is a legal issue only indirectly tied to the biological one.
Sarah