One of the most effective ways to lie is to change the words in a discussion. We stop talking about ‘fornication’ and say ‘living together’. We stop talking about ‘unwed mothers’ and talk about ‘teenage pregnancy’. We stop calling it ‘adultery’ and call it ‘open marriage’. We cover our sin with lies, using words.
Fetus
FE'TUS, noun plural fetuses. [Latin faetus.] The young of viviparous animals in the womb, and of oviparous animals in the egg, after it is perfectly formed; before which time it is called embryo. A young animal then is called a fetus from the time its parts are distinctly formed, till its birth.
Webster’s 1828
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from Latin fetus (often, incorrectly, foetus) "the bearing or hatching of young, a bringing forth, pregnancy, childbearing, offspring,"
https://www.etymonline.com/word/foetus
The word ‘fetus’ means ‘baby’. It means young human offspring. Everyone that understands biology in the slightest knows this. But because it is from the Latin, and sounds all official, people blow smoke in your eyes and make it sound as if the word means ‘non-human blob of tissue’.
One of the most powerful pro-life (indeed abolitionist) visual arguments is to simply show the developing ‘fetus’ in the womb. Its even more powerful if you show it backwards. Perhaps stopping every couple of days of development and development and asking, “So, is it OK to kill it now?”
Try it with children… people too young to have been brainwashed or to have their consciences seared. Find a nice youtube with an animation of the developing baby in the womb (they will call it a ‘fetus’) and play it backwards. Look at the baby ten minutes before she comes out of the vagina, then go back a week, go back another week, and the child will understand what biology has always understood, and our modern sophists try to disguise… she is a baby. She is a developing baby.
Or perhaps it isn’t the sophist. Perhaps it is… you. You don’t want this thing growing inside you, or your girlfriend, or your daughter, to be an actual baby. An actual developing human being that is your son, or daughter, or grandson, or granddaughter, or nephew…
If you don’t want to believe it is human, well, just go and hide behind the word ‘fetus’.
Conclusion
It is a common thing to say that ‘abortion is a complex moral issue’. That is actually a lie, and the way the word ‘fetus’ is used is one part of that lie. In order to attempt to make the issue sound complex, words are used, including ‘fetus’, to distance the reality of the actions involved from the political discussion.
It is a fairly well-known fact that if you were to sit a group of ordinary human beings down and show them an abortion… an actual abortion from beginning to end, including images of the child… the audience would be horrified. They would not merely be ‘grossed out’, as some of them might be with an appendectomy, or react to the immodesty, as you might have with surgery involving the testes, cervix, or breast… they would be horrified.
To use the word ‘fetus’ in the abortion debate is to lie to yourself and your audience. The human being killed is a baby. Abortion murders a human baby. That is the reality, and there is nothing complex about it.
Yes Von
And we dont Stone people anymore for adultery, not so much any more....
And we Don't Execute Gays, Throw them off Buildings, Hang Them, Lash Them, imprison them,cut their heads off ( saudi), not so much any more...
And we don't execute scientists anymore, like in the middle ages. Or threaten to execute Galileo for attempting to explain how the earth revolves around the sun......
We Don't burn our Neighbors at the stake for False Witness, or Witchcraft....
We don't kill people for changing religion, not so much....
Here Von,
Instead of focusing on this issue, and bringing scripture into the conversation. Try this, instead of all women bearing the costs of rearing a child, and the state ( you)
Pass a law in every state that the men are as responsible as the women for the pregnancy.
Baby is born at full term, the man has to take full Resposibilty In Providing for the child from day one. ( DNA proven)
Formula , Diapers, Clothing , Daycare, education, because the mother is going to have to work, without a doubt.
All those men just looking to get their rocks off, a quicky, oh baby I love you so much, Wham Bam thank you mam.
See how that works out for them when they get hit with the shock and realization of a lifetime responsibility of bringing up a Child.
It might drop the Abortion Rate and Over Time a law like this might drop the rate Rate substantially.
Just saying...
@Mark L
This is a very interesting comment with a lot of depth to it. I think I will respond with a full post. Perhaps by Thursday.