Protecting the Pre-dead

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. 

Is this fetus unborn, pre-born, pre-dead, or undead?