August 10, 2011
Case against Abortion: Fetal Development
15-week-old Fetus Thumb-Sucking
In an issue as heated as abortion (or, ‘feticide’, to disrobe the politically-correct label for killing of the fetus), it’s important first to look at the hard cold facts.
Here’s a fetal development chart from the Voice For Life Fact Sheet on the Unborn (Keep in mind in reading this that most abortions [at least in the UK] happen around the 8-9-week period):
| 1st day | the child’s conception takes place |
| 7 day | a tiny human implants in the mother’s uterus |
| 10 days | the mother’s menses stop |
| 18 days | the child’s heart begins to beat |
|
21 days |
the heart pumps own blood through separate closed circulatory system with own blood type. |
|
28 days |
the child’s eyes, ears and respiratory system begin to form |
|
42 days |
the brain waves can be recorded, skeleton is complete, reflexes are present, hiccoughs first occur. |
|
7 weeks |
thumbsucking has been photographed, startles first occur from 6-7 1/2 weeks |
|
8 weeks |
all body systems are present, isolated arm movements begin about 7 1/4 to 8 1/2 weeks after conception. Breathing movements begin during the eighth week. Stretches first occur during the eighth week. |
|
9 weeks |
the child squints, swallows, moves tongue and makes a fist. Rotations of the head also begin from the middle of the seventh week after conception to the middle of the tenth week. |
|
10 weeks |
Hand to face contacts first occur 8 to 10 1/2 weeks after conception. |
|
11 weeks |
spontaneous breathing movements, the child has fingernails and all body systems are operating. Jaw openings and forward head movement begin during 8 1/2 to 12 1/2 weeks after conception. |
|
12 weeks |
the child weighs one ounce |
|
16 weeks |
genital organs clearly differentiated, the child grasps with hands, swims, kicks, turns and somersaults (still not felt by the mother) |
|
18 weeks |
the vocal cords work and baby can cry |
|
19 weeks |
Kenya King’s birth, Florida, June 1985 |
|
20 weeks |
the child has hair on its head, weighs one pound, 12 inches long |
|
23 weeks |
15% of babies survive premature birth |
|
24 weeks |
56% of babies survive premature birth |
|
25 weeks |
79% of babies survive premature birth |
|
39-40 weeks |
normal birth |
Dicky P said,
August 10, 2011 at 12:06 pm
None of the things on your list give the unborn child a right to life. Maybe you should have a timeline of your path to hating women or were you just conceived that way?
TTM said,
August 10, 2011 at 1:25 pm
It seems to me you’re projecting your own tendency toward irrational hostility (apparent in your ad hominem fallacy) onto me. Where have I ever said anything about hating women? That’s not even the issue – the issue is the life of the unborn child. Please stop redirecting the train of thought to irrelevantville.
TTM said,
August 10, 2011 at 1:28 pm
The issue of right to life is a philosophical one, but data helps to inform the philosophical foundation; that of natural rights according to natural law.
Dicky P said,
August 11, 2011 at 12:21 pm
Natural law is all shit. Have you ever read Peter Singer or Michael Tooley? Google them-you might learn something.
TTM said,
August 11, 2011 at 12:55 pm
According to what reason? You’re showing all the intellectual response of a teenage angst. Any reasonable mind that can see through your name-calling and semantic manipulation (directed, in the end, at manipulating people) would see that such immature responses only serve to undermine your own integrity and, thus, credibility.
Yes, I have actually. Singer has a materialistic ontology in which personhood depends on qualities rather than on the intrinsic and formal nature of a thing (“what it is”), which in many ways is deficient and, in this case, dehumanizing. It’s no wonder that an “ethicist” (a misnomer here, really) with such a warped ontology would speak approvingly of bestiality and about the possibility of euthanizing his own mother.
Dicky P said,
August 11, 2011 at 3:44 pm
Does it make you really angry that I am out there donating my money to pro-abortion causes which will lead to the killing of unborn children and there is nothing you can do about it? That each year millions of unborn children are killed all over the world and all you can do is chuck some words down on a blog? Surely it must be infuriating? I’m sure someone is being killed at this very moment.
TTM said,
August 11, 2011 at 4:12 pm
Dicky P,
while it would be right for me to be angry, I’m rather saddened that people like you do not see any value in the unborn child.
In any case, I see that you’re not interested in engaging in any reasoned debate; your concern seems to be to push your own agenda onto others without regard for them. I’ll classify your posts as spam from here on.
Dicky P said,
August 11, 2011 at 3:56 pm
“which in many ways is deficient and, in this case, dehumanizing” Yet you dehumanize women when you say that a newly formed embryo has a right to control her body and life. What you are doing is not something of giving embryos moral value but simply destroying the lives of women; life forms that have actual desires, feelings and beliefs. Pro-life people (mainly males) don’t actually care about life but care more for control of women. They want women in roles that they judge women belong in, ie second class citizens who should be stay at home mothers with say in what happens in their lives. The whole pro-life philosophy stinks.
TTM said,
August 11, 2011 at 4:16 pm
I have already told you that the concern here is for the unborn child. Letting the child be born is actually therapeutic for a lot of women; killing one’s own child has often adverse effects; in any case, it’s objectively disordered, speaking merely from a philosophical point of view.
Nonsense. You seem to be projecting your own mindset onto others as a basis of judgement.
Also, I have an equal number of male and female pro-life friends; it’s because sanctity of life is a universally human issue.
Genevieve said,
October 10, 2012 at 8:38 pm
God bless you. I am a Catholic too (from Malaysia) and like you, I am a pro-life supporter. I stumbled upon your post as I’m doing a presentation on Pro-Life and Anti-Abortion. It’s sad to see all the negative posts that are for abortion.. so, just wanna give you support and encouragement! Good job! Stand strong in your faith and principles! Peace!
TTM said,
October 10, 2012 at 8:46 pm
Thanks for the support, Genevieve.
Not to worry though, it’s only one or two that (persistently) leave negative comments. God bless you on your presentation.