I attended a continuing education course on ethics this
afternoon. Per usual, we gathered in
small groups to discuss case studies and ethical dilemmas. And, per usual, all of our ethical dilemmas
involved cases with children. Everyone
knows that nothing gets folks more impassioned than cute little innocent
adorable children. Ninety percent of all
social workers became social workers for the sole purpose of saving children.
The last case scenario of the day involved an ethical dilemma
related to respecting a drug-abusing pregnant woman’s right to
self-determination versus a social worker’s obligation to protect vulnerable
populations. In this case, the
vulnerable population would be the unborn child. There are lots of arguments on both sides of
this dilemma, but that’s not what I’m here to discuss.
I want to talk about language and words that annoys me.
Today’s annoying word?
Pre-born.
While we were discussing the above case, another attendee
used the term pre-born to describe
the fetus in the scenario.
First, I hate the superfluous use of pre. I hate diagnoses like pre-diabetic, pre-hypertensive,
or pre-obese. For the most part, you
either have a condition or you don’t.
Rather than telling a guy he’s pre-diabetic, the doctor should really be
saying, “Look. Your blood sugar is on
the high end of normal. So, if you don’t
stop drinking 3 quarts of gravy through
a straw every day, you’re going to become diabetic and have to shoot insulin
into your gut twice a day, ok?”
Second, when did unborn
fall out favor amongst the baby-loving pro-life folks? I actually liked the term unborn.
Unborn makes me think of undead, which allows me to visual zombie
fetuses. And, really, what’s more
awesome and terrifying than a fetal zombie?
Pre-born,
though, just irks me.
Pre-born isn’t
particularly descriptive of fetal development.
I prefer terms like zygote, blastocyst, embryo, and fetus to let me know
where things are along the production line.
Pre-born could fall anywhere along
that spectrum.
Pre-born is also
overly presumptive. The term presumes
that a zygote, blastocyst, embryo or fetus will one day be birthed into
non-parasitic, fully animated human form.
Stillbirth occurs in 1 in every 200
pregnancies in the U.S. The miscarriage rate for women who know they are pregnant is 15-20%. It’s estimated
that 50% of all fertilized eggs are spontaneously aborted before the woman even
knows she’s pregnant. If life begins at
conception, then the pre-born only have 50% chance of making it out of the womb
alive.
With odds like that, you might as well refer to the
unborn/pre-born as the pre-dead.
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| Is this fetus unborn, pre-born, pre-dead, or undead? |
