Abstract
The complexity of the simple term “fetus” cannot be overstated. While the biological definition is straightforward, disagreement about almost everything else surrounds the term. Religions clash over the conceptual meaning of fetal personhood, and persons have joined or left faiths because of the prescribed religious doctrine. Arrest and incarceration have taken place when the perceived fetal person has come to harm. Misguided fanatics who believe in fetal personhood have taken the lives of those who do not. Government elections have been won or lost based upon the candidate’s perception of fetal personhood. Women argue for the right to carry to term fetuses/pregnancies that they wish to parent and have marched, fought, and died to end those which they do not. Personal finances and national and state policy determine the ease or complete lack of access, to ending a pregnancy safely under sterile medical conditions. The movement to recognize the fetus as a legal person grew with the viewing of fetal ultrasounds, in which an entity within the woman’s body, previously mysterious, became visible. There is a wide range of debate when attempting to reconcile the personhood of a fetus with the fundamental rights of a pregnant woman.
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Catlin, A. (2015). Fetus. In: ten Have, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Bioethics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05544-2_196-1
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