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From: regard@ttidcc.UUCP (Adrienne Regard)
Newsgroups: net.abortion
Subject: re: dogs, cats, and kids
Message-ID: <756@ttidcc.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 9-Oct-85 14:39:38 EDT
Article-I.D.: ttidcc.756
Posted: Wed Oct  9 14:39:38 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 12-Oct-85 21:43:33 EDT
Organization: TTI, Santa Monica, CA.
Lines: 43


>> I happen to be 7 months pregnant.  Fetus already has a name, and likes to
>> tap dance late at night -- evidence of personality already.  BUT. . .
>>
>You're the first person I've known of that refered to their unborn
>child simply as a fetus.  I've heard both baby and fetus, but not just
>wholly refered to as fetus.  For example, no one said 'hey ray, come feel
>fetus kicking',

Not "wholly".  I've heard people refer to it as "Mr.  Fetus", "McFetus",
"the wart", etc. in addition to "baby". (I've never said, "hey ray, come
feel fetus kicking" either.  Usually I say, "jezus, Jon, look what the
little bugger is up to now!" (-:) I usually refer to it by it's soon-to-be-
registered name, occasionally by "pet" names (such as "ralph", "sally",
"little wombat" and "the vampire"), and/or "it" because I don't know what
sex it will be.

Will be.  At 7 months, it has genitals and XY differentiation, but it
still isn't born yet.  Therefore, "will be".  Most people ask me "When
is the baby due?", which I suppose is labeling it a baby _now_, but
hedges the bet by using the future tense.  Course, I also know people
who have given their computer terminals human names.  I'm not sure that
means anything.

>by definition the baby, er, the fetus is called a fetus till the fetus is
>born and becomes a baby, but fetus seems so technical, so medically
>doctrinal.

To some, I'm sure it does seem this way.  To me, words is words.  Some
words are more accurate than others, some more emotionally charged.  Thus:

>Pro-choice prefer the usage of fetus while pro-life favor the word baby.
>In either case, the choice of the word is used exclusively for argument
>substantiation.

Sometimes one pays attention to the accuracy/charge of the words, (inten-
tionally or counter-intentionally) and sometimes one doesn't.

>  No flames please, just kicking around thoughts outloud.

What you said.

Adrienne Regard