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From: jhs@duke.UUCP (Joel Saltz)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Abortion
Message-ID: <5367@duke.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 4-Feb-85 22:04:46 EST
Article-I.D.: duke.5367
Posted: Mon Feb  4 22:04:46 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 7-Feb-85 02:28:50 EST
Organization: Duke University
Lines: 24

According to a pediatric neurosurgeon at Duke (Dr. Oakes) with
whom I am taking a class, it is impossible to tell by physical
exam whether an infant has a cerebral cortex until it is
3 or 4 months of age.
(Some of the children that 
Dr. Oakes treats for a number of reasons
are born or become decorticate )
A person without a cerebral cortex
is incapable of language, and  presumably of thought. 
Functioning of this part of the brain is 
vital to most voluntary activities engaged in by
people and I'm pretty sure that you have to go
at least as far as reptiles down the evolutionary ladder
to find organisms without this portion of the brain.

Development into a human being is clearly a gradual process. 
The above observation gives me reason to be
skeptical about a claim that by aborting a fetus
one is killing an organism  capable of thought.
(Of course people can oppose abortions on other grounds)


			    Joel Saltz