Word: fetus
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...Justices of the Supreme Court of the U.S. shrank with becoming modesty from this speculation, the jury of laymen that convicted Dr. Kenneth Edelin in a Boston criminal court (TIME, Feb. 24) showed no such restraint. Its verdict-guilty of manslaughter-was reached after the jury decided that a fetus aborted by the obstetrician more than a year earlier had been, in fact, a living baby. Last week Judge James P. McGuire, who in his charge to the jury had declared that "a fetus is not a person and therefore not a subject for an indictment for manslaughter," took some...
Edelin's conviction, which resulted from the abortion of a 20-or 22-week-old fetus, should have no direct effect on a woman's right to elect an abortion in the first trimester (three months) of pregnancy-within 14 weeks after the last menstrual period. Abortions at this stage are relatively simple, virtually bloodless procedures; they account for about 800,000 of the 900,000 legal abortions now performed annually in the U.S. Under the 1973 Supreme Court ruling, first-trimester abortions are essentially free of regulation but must be performed by a licensed physician...
That limit would seem to provide obstetricians with an ample safety margin. Although an 18-week fetus (see cut) looks like a baby and can suck its thumb, the chance of survival for any fetus less than 24 weeks old and weighing an average 630 gm. (about 1% Ibs.) is slim. (Edelin's abortion produced a fetus of 600 gm. after a gestation that he had estimated at about 20 weeks.) Between 24 and 28 weeks is a gray zone in which few fetuses attain the weight or organ development needed to survive outside the womb. It is only...
Great Odds. In many states, the Boston conviction could result in an increase in the cost of abortions. To avoid malpractice suits, hospitals may well have extra personnel and life-support equipment standing by during second-trimester abortions (a practice already required in New York State). If the aborted fetus shows even the faintest signs of life, more obstetricians will use the equipment to try to keep it alive-despite the great odds against success...
...abortion but of destruction of human life following an abortion. The verdict was reached by peers who had no choice but to base their decision on the compelling evidence presented in the case. The jury is saying that a doctor has no right to kill an aborted fetus that is alive...