...one who asks: how could its birth possibly give rise to an action for damages? But every baby has a belly to be filled and a body to be clothed. The law relating to damages is concerned with reparation in money terms and this is what is needed for the maintenance of a baby.’ Peter Pain J (II) Introduction ‘Wrongful Birth’ and ‘Wrongful Life’ are issues caught in a ‘legal quagmire’, as they exist between realms of purist legal principles and heated public policy debate. Much like the social taboos of abortion and euthanasia, at their core, they raise questions as to the value placed on human life. Moreover, this ‘value’ is represented by two sides of the coin in addressing the intangible ‘blessing’ of conception and existence, against the real fiscal burdens involved in adequately raising a child. In recent years several major cases have come before English and Australian courts to address issues in this field; however decisions have been far from unanimous, leaving the law in a state of ambiguity. This paper attempts to provide a line of clarity in respect to the developments of legal principles and public policy on these issues, by closely examining relevant case progression and wider academic debate. (III) Development of the ‘Birth Torts’ Unfortunately, the labels of ‘Wrongful Birth’ and ‘Wrongful Life’ are contentious even in their very existence; however it is critical to establish that ‘what is ‘wrongful’ is the negligence, not the birth’. Both issues refer to cases...
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...to their mother’s legal status.” Conubium is “the capacity to take a wife legitimately,” yet, in spite of its outwardly androcentric definition, conubium is treated in law as a marriage’s collective quality rather than as an individual “capacity.” More appropriately stated, a relationship with conubium is one in which both parties have the “capacity” to marry legitimately. Semantics aside, there is no conubium without two parties to share it. As Karen was unmarried when the twins were both conceived and birthed, conubium is not present in this case, and the twins therefore “accede to [her] legal status.” Ulpian also provides that “in the case of children not legitimately conceived, [the time of] birth [is observed in determining the child’s status],” so Karen’s status at birth decides the status of her twins. As Karen is a sui iuris citizen, so too are the twins. Second, Karen is legally required to provide care to the twins, and the twins are similarly required to support Karen, for Ulpian “compel[s] a mother to support especially her illegitimate children; and (conversely) them (to support)...
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...singing and dancing competitions as a child, and rose to fame in the late 1990s as lead singer of R&B girl-group Destiny's Child Conception - Human life begins with conception, conception is the process involving several females’ egg being mixed with the sperm and then fertilized. Conception is the biological process which involves an egg being fertilized by a sperm so that it then becomes implanted in the wall of the womb or uterus. At this stage, Beyoncé’s mum would have stopped having her monthly period after having sexual intercourse noticing she is pregnant. The picture below shows conception taking place when her parents become physically close. Pregnancy - Pregnancy refers to the period of time, normally 40 weeks, extending from conception and the date of the last menstrual period to a baby’s birth. Beyoncé’s mother would have been experiencing certain development in her body. Physically, her stomach would continue to grow during the different trimesters, and she would experience discomfort, intellectually she may want to read books to learn about the baby growing inside her also what to expect for child birth. Emotionally, the mother will experience mood swings including being upset. The picture below shows pregnancy taking place in her mother’s womb. Birth and Infancy (0-3) - The picture below shows Beyoncé from birth to infancy. At this stage she will experience different development, which includes physical, Intellectual, Emotional and Social. The...
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...Human Development Across the Life Span Development is the sequence of age-related changes that occur as a person progresses from conception to death. Progress Before Birth: Prenatal Development Conception occurs when fertilization creates a zygote, a onecelled organism formed by the union of a sperm and an egg. The prenatal period extends from conception to birth, usually encompassing nine months of pregnancy. The Course of Prenatal Development. Germinal Stage. The germinal stage is the first phase of prenatal development, encompassing the first two weeks after conception. The placenta is a structure that allows oxygen and nutrients to pass into the fetus from the mother’s bloodstream and bodily wastes to pass out to the mother. Embryonic Stage. The embryonic stage is the second stage of prenatal development, lasting from two weeks until the end of the second month. Fetal Stage. The fetal stage is the third stage of prenatal development, lasting from two months through birth. Environmental Factors and Prenatal Development. Teratogens are any external agents, such as drugs or viruses, that can harm an embryo or fetus. Maternal Drug Use. Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) is a collection of congenital (inborn) problems associated with excessive alcohol use during pregnancy. Fetal alcohol syndrome is the most common known cause of mental retardation. Maternal Illness and Exposure to Toxins. The fetus is largely defenseless against infections because its immune system matures...
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...single cell, or a fetus, an infant, or an octogenarian. These are all natural stages of human development, but science establishes the beginning of human life at conception. From the moment of conception, a distinct human being is present. Abortion, therefore, kills a developing human being. This is a fact, not a moral or religious assertion. After the birth of a human being, our society has laws in place to protect it from murder. Thus, it would seem that we have chosen birth as the moment after which the laws of murder apply to a human being. If the process of birth is important enough to be the event that bestows on a human being its legal rights, it is entirely logical to ban a procedure that so effectively blurs the legal line between murder and abortion -- between the “born” and the “unborn.” Abortion is murder no matter what kind of laws the Government makes. In 1973 the United States Supreme Court made a decision on the case of Roe vs. Wade, the Court found that a woman had the right to choose whether or not to abort a pregnancy within certain constraints. However, according to the Court if a fetus were a person, abortion would be found impermissible. While this decision made an attempt at establishing a legal precedent, from a moral and religious standpoint, it is wrong. Upon the moment of conception, the human embryo is a person; and as a result, the fetus acquires a soul, making its abortion a sin within the teachings of the Catholic Church. There are many...
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...physical and emotional changes to expect during the first trimester can help you face the months ahead with confidence. First trimester pregnancy: Your body Consider common physical changes during the first trimester of pregnancy. Bouts of nausea Morning sickness, which can strike at any time of the day or night, sometimes begins as early as three weeks after conception. Nausea seems to stem at least in part from rapidly rising levels of estrogen and progesterone, which cause the stomach to empty more slowly. Pregnant women also have a heightened sense of smell, so various odors — such as foods cooking, perfume or cigarette smoke — might cause waves of nausea in early pregnancy. To help relieve nausea, eat small, frequent meals throughout the day. Choose foods that are low in fat and easy to digest. It's also helpful to drink plenty of fluids. Avoid foods or smells that make your nausea worse. Try drinking ginger ale. For some women, motion sickness bands are helpful. For others, alternative therapies such as acupuncture or hypnosis offer relief. If you're considering an alternative therapy, get the OK from your health care provider first. Contact your health care provider if the nausea is severe, you're passing only a small amount of urine or it's dark in color, you can't keep down liquids, you feel dizzy or faint when standing up, your heart is racing, or you vomit blood. Tender, swollen breasts Soon...
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...Critical Analysis In Vitro Fertilization August 19, 2009 Marriages can offer new exciting experiences especially when couples want to start developing a family. For some couples pregnancy is simple and their family begins. For others it isn’t so easy, having children becomes a medical challenge and alternative solutions need to be sought out. One such solution for conception involves using the medical advancement of In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) techniques. However, for many this raises a whole batch of ethical dilemmas. IVF brings up dilemmas such as the process itself, when does “life” begin, how many eggs to fertilize, and cryopreservation of embryos. It is an especially difficult decision for those of Christian beliefs as IVF is not widely received within the Christian community and not clearly addressed in the Bible. I first want to take a look at the process itself and what leads a couple, or individual, to this decision. Before we start, we need to define what infertility is. According to The Fertility Center (2009), infertility is the “inability for a couple to conceive after one year of normal intercourse with no contraception”. Facing infertility is not as uncommon as one might believe, according to the Center for Disease Control, “approximately 1.2 million women made infertility related appointments in 2002”. In simpler terms, one in six couples faces infertility related issues at some point during their childbearing...
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...innumerable television talk shows, magazine articles, and newspaper editorials. With each new medical breakthrough in fertility and family planning, the noise level grows higher. From elementary school onward we're now deluged with information, some factual, some not on menstruation and menopause, conception and contraception. Sorting it all out may seem impossible. But a reasonable understanding of the basics of reproduction can make the job easy. As you weigh your options, whether to encourage pregnancy or forestall it, your best resource is a working knowledge of the organs, glands, and hormones that prepare your body for motherhood. The reproductive system begins at the external genital area or vulva, which runs from the pubic area downward to the rectum. Two folds of fatty, fleshy tissue surround the entrance to the vagina and the urinary opening: the labia majora, or outer folds, and the labia minora, or inner folds, located under the labia majora (Thibodeau and Patton, 2008.) The clitoris, is a relatively short organ (less than one inch long), shielded by a hood of flesh (Reproductive System, 2009.) When stimulated sexually, the clitoris can become erect like a man's penis. The hymen, a thin membrane protecting the entrance of the vagina, stretches when you insert a tampon or have intercourse. From this point onward, the reproductive system leads deeper and deeper into the body. The vagina is a muscular, ridged sheath connecting the external genitals to the uterus, where...
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...There are two main groups of people in the case of abortion, pro-life supporters and pro-choice supporters. On the one hand, pro-life supporters, those who think abortion is not right, consider a fertilized human egg a human being from the moment of conception. Therefore, they refer to abortion as murder. On the other hand, the pro-choice supporters, those in favor of abortion, have a different perspective. They believe that a fetus is a human only after birth. The moral difference between these groups encompasses one issue. That is “At what stage is a fertilized egg considered a human being?” According to Peter Singer, there are four general stages that the pro-lifers and the pro-choicers argue about in terms of the standing of a fetus. They are: “birth, viability, quickening and the onset of consciousness” (138). The arguments made by the two groups for and against each of these stages causes the standing of an embryo to be upgraded to that of a child in the long run, as Singer suggests (138). Thus, this paper will examine and analyze the four moral junctures for the status of the fetus -“birth, viability, quickening and the onset of consciousness”- considered by anti-abortionists and pro-abortionists. Birth is the first stage debated by pro-life and pro-choice supporters. Some pro-abortionists believe that an embryo is a human being once it is born and before that time it should not have the same rights to life as a child does. In contrast...
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..."The Woman Rebel" and The Fight for Birth Control During fourteen years experience as a trained nurse, I found that a great percentage of women's diseases were due to ignorance of the means to prevent conception. I found that quackery was thriving on this ignorance, and that thousands of abortions were being performed each year-- principally upon the women of the working class. Since the laws deter reliable and expert surgeons from performing abortions, working women have always been thrown into the hands of the incompetent, with fatal results. The deaths from abortions mount very high. I found that physicians and nurses were dealing with these symptoms rather than their causes, and I decided to help remove the chief cause by imparting knowledge to prevent conception, in defiance of existing laws and their extreme penalty. I sent out a call to the proletarian women of America to assist me in this work, and their answers came by the thousands. I started The Woman Rebel early in 1914. The first issue of the magazine was suppressed. Seven issues out of nine were suppressed, and although sent out as first-class mail, the editions were confiscated. The newspapers--even the most radical-- declined to give this official tyranny any publicity. In August, 1914, a Federal Grand Jury returned three indictments against me, based on articles in the March, May and July issues of The Woman Rebel. The articles branded as "obscene" merely discussed the question and contained no information...
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...questions about prenatal care and the stages of pregnancy. And women who are concerned about pregnancy loss may have lots of questions about miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy. Only you can decide what is best for you when it comes to pregnancy. But we are here to help. A staff member at your local Planned Parenthood health center can talk with you about all of your pregnancy-related concerns. And we can help you get care that you need. Pregnancy is the fertilization and development of one or more offspring, known as an embryo or fetus, in a woman's uterus. In a pregnancy, there can be multiple gestations, as in the case of twins or triplets. Childbirth usually occurs about 38 weeks after conception; in women who have a menstrual cycle length of four weeks, this is approximately 40 weeks from the start of the last normal menstrual period (LNMP)....
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...PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT | EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT | INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT | SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT | CONCEPTION | 9 Months before birth | the action of conceiving a child or of one being conceived | Human life beings with conception. After fertilization has taken place by 25 days the baby‘s body starts developing the head and trunk appear, followed by a tiny arm buds. By 30 days the baby will be about a quarter of an inch long have a brain eyes, liver, kidney, nose and the baby heart will be pumping blood that he created himself.By 5 months the baby now has hair, eye lashes, finger prints the baby’s eyes should now be opened. During this time the baby kicks and has a strong grip. | There is no emotional development during conception. | There is no intellectual development during conception. | There is also no social development during conception. | PREGNANCY | 9 months to birth | This is state of carrying a developing embryo or foetus within the female body | The breasts. Early in Suzie’s pregnancy they will feel tender and may be largerAnd obviously her belly is going to get bigger as the child grows.They baby will also grow. After 8 weeks the embryo may have grown to between 3-4cm and has a recognisable heartbeat and the beginning of the essential part of the body. At this stage the organism is called a foetus. By 20 weeks the foetus would have reached the half length of the baby at birth. | Suzie will experience extreme fatigue or morning sickness and can disturb her daily life....
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...unjust to the fetus. There are many reasons why women decide to have abortions. Some women have abortions because of health complications, some have marital problems, and some lack responsibility. Whatever the reasons a woman decides to have an abortion, it seems only justified that she should be able to make decisions in regards to her life and body. When pondering issues surrounding abortion, many questions come to mind. Is a fetus a human being? Is abortion physically and mentally safe for women? And finally, should abortion be legal? It is only after exploring these questions can a person justify their position on abortion. Abortion is defined by a decidedly objective source (the dictionary) as "a fatally premature expulsion of a fetus from the womb" (Webster 2). Abortions are performed in a variety of ways. It dates back to BC times. Ancient abortions usually consisted of mildly poisoning a pregnant mother. The poison was hoped to be just strong enough to kill the fetus, yet mild enough to keep the woman alive. Also, sometimes women would receive physical blows to their abdomen an effort to kill...
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...pro-choice advocates see the life of the baby as the most important concern. Very little middle ground exists on the issue of abortion. I. When Does Life Begin? [1] "Development of the embryo begins at Stage 1 when a sperm fertilizes an oocyte and together they form a zygote." — England, Marjorie A. Life Before Birth. 2nd ed. England: Mosby-Wolfe, 1996, p.31 "Human development begins after the union of male and female gametes or germ cells during a process known as fertilization (conception). "Fertilization is a sequence of events that begins with the contact of a sperm (spermatozoon) with a secondary oocyte (ovum) and ends with the fusion of their pronuclei (the haploid nuclei of the sperm and ovum) and the mingling of their chromosomes to form a new cell. This fertilized ovum, known as a zygote, is a large diploid cell that is the beginning, or primordium, of a human being." — Moore, Keith L. Essentials of Human Embryology. Toronto: B.C. Decker Inc, 1988, p.2 [2] The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology, 6th ed. Keith L. Moore, Ph.D. & T.V.N. Persaud, Md., (Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Company, 1998), 2-18: "[The Zygote] results from the union of an oocyte and a sperm. A zygote is the beginning of a new human being. Human development begins at fertilization, the process during which a male gamete or sperm ... unites with a female gamete or oocyte ... to form a single cell called a zygote. This highly specialized, totipotent cell marks the beginning...
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...Developmental Psychology Student's Name: Institution Affiliation: Introduction The embryo undergoes enormous changes during the period of its development. It is transformed from a single cell to a recognizable human embryo. The process of prenatal development takes place in three main stages. The first stage is the germinal stage that occurs in the first two weeks after conception. The second stage is the embryonic period which occurs from the third week up to the eighth week. The last stage in this category is the fetal period that occurs from the ninth week until birth. The Germinal Stage The germinal stage starts at the conception time when the sperm and the egg cell unite resulting in fertilization that occurs in the fallopian tube. The fertilized egg is referred to as the zygote. The zygote then moves towards the uterus. Cell division occurs about 24 to 36 hours after conception (Giritharan, Ilic, Gormley & Krtolica, 2011). The single-celled zygote will start moving towards the uterus from the fallopian tube, this occurs just a few hours after conception the process is referred to as implantation. The process of cell division takes place in the uterus. After the process of implantation, another process called gastrulation takes place and forms three layers that are known as the germ layers. The germ layer differentiates into different structures. The ectoderm forms several outer tissues such as hair and skin and also...
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