Every pregnant woman has a fetus attached to her by an umbilical cord. That proves that the fetus is connected biologically and physically to the pregnant woman. The idea that the fetus is viable, that it can exist without the mother around the seventh month of a pregnancy doesn’t make it viable unless it is disconnected from the mother and able to exist on it’s own. It can’t. It takes intervention to keep the fetus viable. It becomes independent when is no longer need the intervention. Here’s the rub. It looks like a baby. It is dependent like a baby. It is a baby but unless it makes it past the stage of needing intervention it is a dependent. Yes, newborn babies need loads of care. Yes, that care can be called intervention but not in the same way as when the fetus is attached to an umbilical cord. The problem with calling every abortion murder is manifold. Some pregnancies don’t make it. Some births are stillborn. The umbilical cord makes the owner of the fetus the pregnant woman. The pregnant woman is not a potential human, she is an actual human and the protection of her Rights, her body and her property apply to her. They do not accrue to her kidneys, to her heart, to her liver. And they therefore and thereby do not apply to a fetus connected to her by her umbilical cord. It’s ingenuous to call an umbilical cord hers but not the fetus attached to that cord. Knowing that means the woman is in possession of the fetus and she, not the fetus has the package of Rights that pertain to the individual. A fetus by those words is not an individual with Rights. Two people cannot have the same Rights to the same thing simultaneously. Ask the question another way. Should society protect a fetus against the ownership by the woman? Well, yes and no. Yes if the woman is not viable. No if she is. No because the fetus is not an individual. It is a fetus. It looks like a baby. Society has an obligation to protect babies but not against the will or decision of the individual involved. The idea of individuation is the key to the correct answer to the question of murder and abortion. Most people melt at the sight of a tiny newborn and would do all they could to protect it. That’s understandable. It’s just not relevant in this specific case.
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