Fetus Talk

A Catholic hospital's legal defense team in Colorado is fighting a lawsuit brought about on behalf of two unborn twins:

Instead, they are arguing state law protects doctors from liability concerning unborn fetuses on grounds that those fetuses are not persons with legal rights.

In wronful death legalese, the Rocky Mountain State doesn't actually classify someone a person until they are born.  That justification doesn't bother me.  What bothers me is that it's being used to represent a Catholic hospital's stance on the start of human life.  I can appreciate self-serving behavior, but this just flies in the face of what they stand for. 

In Texas it's the same thing:  if the fetus dies because of alleged medical malpractice, health care staff is off the hook.  But if a layperson kills a fetus, that's another thing.  How's that for tort reform?

It's remarkable the double standard that exists.  I don't mean to indict the medical establishment in all of this; but it's highly suspicious that such a law exists, especially when Catholics are hiding behind it.

Mary Elizabeth Williams agrees that life begins at conception, but that fetuses don't have the rights that mothers do.  The "life begins at conception" argument has been used quite a bit.  But if that had any actual traction, how would it change a person's allowable admittance into grade school, age of adulthood, drinking or retirement age?  Would my birthday start when my mom had her first bout of morning sickness, or when I actually came out of her lady parts?  I think that's a legitimate question to ask, particularly when some states are attempting to pass personhood laws.

The abortion debate is definitely worth discussing.  And it seems that no argument is too crazy in this realm.

Rep. Cathrynn M. Brown, who represents the towns of Carlsbad and Loving, would require victims of a sex assault to carry the fetus to term or be prosecuted for "tampering with evidence" if they sought an abortion.

That's going nowhere.  It's probably just somebody's cruel way of testing the waters.  Roe v. Wade just turned 40 so I guess anything's fair.

Ms. Angela Martinez wrote a letter to the LMT Editor today calling out Rick Perry for trying to '"make abortion a thing of the past."'  Perhaps a more vigorous debate on abortion will go a long way in terms of turning Texas purple, or maybe even into a blue state.  That could just be the crazy in me talking.