Word: unbornable
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Similar cases involving prenatal drug delivery have cropped up in nine states across the country. Like the abortion issue, they raise serious questions about a woman's right to privacy and the obligations of the state and the individual toward the unborn. At the center of these cases lies a controversial legal concept: fetal rights. This notion also underlies one of the most important cases before the Supreme Court during its current term. At issue are "fetal-protection policies" used by many companies to forbid fertile female employees from taking jobs that might expose them to substances that could harm...
Critics of such measures say that a true effort on behalf of unborn children would focus on the needs of expectant mothers rather than punishing bad behavior after the fact. Few drug treatment programs, for instance, accept pregnant addicts. A study of New York City drug-abuse programs found that 87% turned away pregnant crack users. Says Sidney Schnoll, a psychiatrist at the Medical College of Virginia: "We seem more willing to place the kid in a neonatal intensive-care unit for $1,500 or $2,000 a day, rather than put $1,500 into better prenatal care...
...that also provided some of the legal underpinning for fetal rights. The same ruling recognized a government interest in protecting the fetus during the last trimester of pregnancy. But while judges had a hand in creating fetal rights, courts will never be able to ensure real protection to an unborn child. That will have to come from mothers who take responsibility for the lives they carry within them -- and a nation willing to provide the fetus with real prenatal care. For now, it seems more willing to provide a lawyer...
...Woman assume new personas in the second and more interesting of the two plays, A Theological Position. The work opens in media res, after Man has brought the pregnant Woman to Priest (Richard Claflin). Apparently, Man is questioning the puzzling genesis of their unborn child. He wants help and advice from the Priest--some allusion is made to the possible demonism of Woman, but we do not discover the details until later. Playwright Coover's attitude toward the church is clear as the Priest voices his self-righteous rigidity. He says of the pregnancy, "Even if it should occur...
...abortion issue should honor women and protect the unborn," he said. "I believe we can do both of those...