So 8 weeks isn't that long? A little interesting fact I learned...

Most abortions are carried out at 6 to 8 weeks gestation.

Some people out there think 8 weeks isn't possibly enough time for a fetus to have developed to any meaningful degree.

But... Did you know canines have a much shorter gestational period of development than humans?
Puppies are ready to come out of their mother's womb after only 8 weeks, sometimes even sooner than that!

6 weeks is considered very premature but, with the attentive care of a human owner, sometimes the puppies can even survive at that age.

 

At which time the fetus is not a sentient being.

Rational people have no problem with abortions during the first 12 weeks.

 

What about premature born human babies? Are they "not a sentient being" too?

 

Okay so if a woman is about to have a puppy she should not get an abortion at 8 weeks - correct?

(Reminds me of a really really really dirty joke - but we won't go there )

Sorry but what is your real point? Elephants have a 2 year gestation period - so can we then extend the period of abortion in case some woman is about to have a baby elephant?

 

Sentient beings require the ability to think, thinking requires a brain, an 8 week old embryo does not have a brain, let alone the nervous system to run it.

 

If they have brain waves in the cerebral cortex, then yes, they are sentient. Brainwaves do not exist prior to 12-14 weeks.

 

Like many of your posts my response is "so?"


Your irrationally and illogically comparing women to dogs says a lot about you that I already knew...

 

I know that they are debating chameleon therapy now but is this not a little out of the box?

 

I'm just saying that 8 weeks is enough time for a lot of development to occur.

 

People can get their dog an abortion at any stage of gestation, so if you really want to compare people to dogs .....

 

Tsk, tsk, you guys are not showing much respect for that Totally Scientific Logical OP......just as much as it deserves

 

Do you support this?

And whose "choice" exactly is it? Because it's certainy not the mother's.
So much for "pro-choice"...

 

You are referring to the mother dog yes??

 

Oh dear, please do some basic research on biology before making simplistic comments and topics, gestation periods vary between animals, some develop more quickly that others based on numerous factors.

 

Yet again an ill informed, simplistic comment, choice is only capable for animals who are sentient.

 

You are correct that brainwaves do not exist prior to 12-14 weeks, but they also do not exist prior to 20-24 weeks.

http://www.svss-uspda.ch/pdf/brain_waves.pdf

When people, including physicians, talk about "brain waves" and "brain activity" they are
referring to organized activity in the cortex. While no embryo or fetus has ever been found to
have "brain waves," extensive EEG studies have been done on premature babies. A very good
summary of their findings can be found in „Pain and its effects in the human neonate and fetus,"
a review article (often cited by "pro-lifers" writing about fetal pain, but not about brain
development) by K.J.S. Anand, a leading researcher on pain in newborns, and P.R. Hickey,
published in NEJM:
Functional maturity of the cerebral cortex is suggested by fetal and neonatal
electroencephalographic patterns...First, intermittent electroencephalograpic
bursts in both cerebral hemispheres are first seen at 20 weeks gestation; they
become sustained at 22 weeks and bilaterally synchronous at 26 to 27 weeks.
There are reasons, based on the physics of the EEG, why this has to be so. Remember, an
EEG involves measuring varying electrical potential across a dipole, or separated charges. To
get scalp or surface potentials from the cortex requires three things: neurons, dendrites, and
axons, with synapses between them. Since these requirements are not present in the human
cortex before 20-24 weeks of gestation, it is not possible to record "brain waves" prior to 20-24
weeks. Period. End of story. Scientists do not attempt to find electrocortical activity in embryos
and fetuses because they know more about the physical structure of the developing human
brain than they did in 1963.

 

And a pregnant woman can die from complications up to 9 months. So what's your point?

 

True, but the fact is it could be possible the human fetus at 8 weeks has already developed to a greater extent than many people think it has.
And we really are not sure about exactly what is going on inside its brain at this point.

 

Possibly it could be reflex action. You'd have to rule that out using the scientific method.

 

That is dogs. We are humans. Pre-mature humans have digestive and breathing problems. The womb has hormones that trigger development that does not happen outside. Premies tend to be less intelligent.

 

Actually we are pretty sure - here is one of the best embryology pages on the web

https://embryology.med.unsw.edu.au/embryology/index.php/Main_Page

Week 8

https://embryology.med.unsw.edu.au/embryology/index.php/BGDA_Practical_7_-_Week_8

Note that even the limbs are not fully formed

 

Changing the subject a little bit but do you feel it's right to abort puppies at 8 weeks?
(For dogs that's basically the equivalent of a late-term term abortion)

 

Why do you compare women with dogs?

 

Same reasons apply for puppies

If the female dog is ill, homeless, unable to succour the young, has malformed foetuses or simply there are too many dogs and no homes can be found for the Puppies - why not?

It happens every day that puppies are euthanized because no homes can be found for them

Which is why many shelters advocate sterilisation of animals as that is the only effective contraception

 

Yes.

Whaaaaaaat?