Word: newborn
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...only is the fetus not truly human, but according to Anthropologist Ashley Montagu, neither is the newborn, until molded by social and cultural influences. Presumably then we may take the life of the newborn any time before this molding is complete. After how much molding? One hour? One week? One year...
Most behavioral scientists, however, do not believe that viability marks the beginning of humanity. In their view, a fetus is not a person but a coherent system of unrealized capacities, and humanity is "an achievement, not an endowment." Anthropologist Ashley Montagu concurs, arguing that the embryo, fetus and newborn do not become truly human until molded by social and cultural influences after birth...
...infant in Manhattan's Harlem Hospital was smaller than most newborn babies, and his cry was unusually shrill and high-pitched. Within several days after birth, his tormented wails became incessant. His sweating body shook and twitched. Occasionally he vomited. If his condition had gone undiagnosed and untreated, the baby might have suffered a convulsion, which could have been fatal, or have died a slower death by dehydration. But the signs have become all too familiar to inner-city doctors. The child's mother was a narcotics addict, and he was suffering withdrawal from the "habit" forced upon...
...that hormones secreted before and after birth have less effect on brain and behavior in human beings than the "sex assignment" that takes place at birth with the announcement: "It's a boy!" or "It's a girl!" This exultant cry tells everyone how to treat the newborn baby, and sets off a chain of events, beginning with the choice of a male or female name, that largely determines whether the child will behave in traditionally masculine or feminine ways...
...another case, a newborn infant with only a rudimentary penis and other genital defects was "assigned" as a boy because he had two testes and the chromosome makeup of a male. With the realization that he could never be a normal man, experts decided when the boy was 17 months old to give him a chance at happiness by reassigning him as a girl. A brother, two years older, was instrumental in helping the child develop a new feminine identity. To help the older boy accept the change, his parents explained that the doctors had made a mistake and that...