Wednesday, February 20, 2013

What Does This Mean (Aside from the End of Abortion)

North Dakota is well on its way to defining a "person" as the act of conception (LINK to law).
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I wonder what this means, in a practical sense, besides the end of abortion.  They have carved out some exceptions as noted below..
Contains an exception for “medical treatment of life-threatening conditions of pregnancy”, for “contraception administered before clinically diagnosable pregnancy,” and for “screening, collecting, preparing, transferring, or cryopreserving of a human being created through in vitro fertilization for the purpose of being transferred to a human uterus”.
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So this doesn't make IUDs or Morning After pills illegal, since both act before conception is detectable. It also removes the problems with invitro - although it is a rather arbitrary distinction - you can kill a fertilized egg if you are making it on purpose, but not if it is an accident.
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This same law passed previously but had to be returned because of the massive cost (relative to North Dakota) because now the state MUST provide free pre-natal care, since they are  no longer "pre-natal" but now are people.
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On a practical side it raises some issues.
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If a woman drinks alcohol, smokes cigarettes or does drugs when pregnant - REGARDLESS if the woman knows or not she is pregnant - she can be charged with endangerment of a minor.  Having a glass of wine while pregnant at 1 week pregnant is now EXACTLY the same as pouring wine down the throat of a newborn.  Aren't bartenders now responsible to check the pregnancy status of any woman before serving them?  I mean, the bartender would go to jail if he served a child hours old, and there is now no difference.
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If there is, at the time of any accident and before an operation on a woman, does the medical team have to determine if she is pregnant?  Because many drugs and operations you would do to save a woman's life would threaten an embryos life.  Since everyone is just as much a person at 1 day of conception as it is at 5 years of age.  And all you need it 1 or 2 operations where an embryo is lost before the law suits start.
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If a woman takes normal medicine that might harm an embryo (say Lipitor or Rogain) is she liable from the moment of conception?  How long after sex must a woman not take any possible drugs?  I don't know how early pregnancy is detectable now.
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If a woman playing college sports suffers a hit with internal bleeding, do we check to see if she was pregnant (known or unknown)?  And if she was pregnant - even 1 week pregnant, do we charge the opposing player with murder?  I mean if an opposing player intentionally hit a 5 year old on the sidelines and killed them, murder.  If 4 cells or an undetectable 3 week embryo is the same as a child - isn't accidentally causing bleeding either murder or at least child endangerment?
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Should we restrict our breeding population to non-contact sports?  I  mean we wouldn't let a 8 month pregnant woman play field hockey, isn't it just the same (they are carrying a PERSON) with a woman that might have a 2 week embryo?  And you can say the scientifically that the risk isn't the same, but scientifically an 8 cell embryo isn't a person, so this isn't a scientific question.
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Then there are the basic age questions.  Does this mean that in North Dakota you can drink at 20 Years and 3 months?  Can you drive at 14 years and 9 months?  Do the athletes in North Dakota lose a year of college eligibility versus other states (except for mormons - there is an age limit)?
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And, finally, are we really and honestly willing to give equal weight of life to a newborn, 5 year old child, 20 year old woman and 4 divided cells?  Does every woman capable of being pregnant have to have a pregnancy test hours before any operation that might use full body anesthesia?
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I guess I am not willing to reclassify "woman" as incubators only.  But then, I don't live in North Dakota.