Pregnancy

[StColette]

[quote name='philothea' post='1906435' date='Jun 30 2009, 05:08 PM']Because that's what the word means.

It doesn't in any way add or detract from the conceived child being alive.[/quote]

But who decided upon that definition? That's my point.

And I didn't say it detracts from the conceived child being alive nor was it implied. My question is why is pregnancy defined by implantation rather than conception. The definition of pregnancy that we have today was not the definition some time ago. So the definition itself could be open to change.

Just opened the Dictionary at my desk. The definition they gave for pregnancy is

1. The condition of a woman or female mammal from conception until birth; the condition of being pregnant.

[philothea]

[quote name='StColette' post='1906449' date='Jun 30 2009, 05:15 PM']But who decided upon that definition? That's my point.

And I didn't say it detracts from the conceived child being alive nor was it implied. My question is why is pregnancy defined by implantation rather than conception. The definition of pregnancy that we have today was not the definition some time ago. So the definition itself could be open to change.

Just opened the Dictionary at my desk. The definition they gave for pregnancy is

1. The condition of a woman or female mammal from conception until birth; the condition of being pregnant.[/quote]
For words that old there was never a formal assignment of the definition. The meaning was determined by common use. From what I can tell it comes from a combination of "before" and "birth" ([i]prae[/i] + [i]gnasci[/i]).

We who speak English could, through changed usage, redefine the world to mean fertilization but I think that would be hard to do, because it's a useful, unique word. We need a word which means that a woman is biologically supporting a child within her.

It is terrible that marketers of abortion pills abuse people's confusion about conception, implantation, and pregnancy, but I don't think that our trying to misuse words is going to help.

[scardella]

BTW, the various applicable dictionary definitions are these:

Pregnant
- having a child or other offspring developing in the body; with child or young, as a woman or female mammal.
- Carrying developing offspring within the body.
- Being with young, as a female; having conceived; great with young; breeding; teeming; gravid; preparing to bring forth.
- containing unborn young within the body : GESTATING
- Carrying developing offspring within the body.

[scardella]

Honestly, I think that the term doesn't carry enough precision to be argued absolutely one way or the other. I think it could possibly be a legal issue in the future, if abortion is outlawed and abortion is defined legally as the termination of a pregnancy rather than the deliberate killing of an unborn person. At that point, a definition of pregnancy in a legal sense would have very strong consequences.

[heavenseeker]

thats tough. im going to go with conception because that is when life begins. i can sorta see where someone would argue that it happens at implantation though. because if the egg gets fertilized but never implants you would never know, and therefore never be aware of being pregnant. eve nwith that thought though i am going to stick to conception.
good question

[elizabeth09]

At conception. I have meet someone that they belive life starts at 6 months into the pregnancy. I really wanted to talk with her, but we have to do something else.

[Nihil Obstat]

[quote name='elizabeth09' post='1909853' date='Jul 3 2009, 09:04 PM']At conception. I have meet someone that they belive life starts at 6 months into the pregnancy. I really wanted to talk with her, but we have to do something else.[/quote]
We're talking about when pregnancy starts, beginning with the assumption that life has began at conception regardless.

[elizabeth09]

I agree with that.

[Angel*Star]

Pregnancy begins at conception. If it does not, why stop something? If I miscarry and not know it, does that make him/her any less in the eyes of God? I think not.

Edited July 4, 2009 by Angel*Star

[Nihil Obstat]

[quote name='Angel*Star' post='1910175' date='Jul 4 2009, 12:12 AM']Life begins at conception. If it does not, why stop something? If I miscarry and not know it, does that make him/her any less in the eyes of God? I think not.[/quote]
[quote name='Nihil Obstat' post='1909856' date='Jul 3 2009, 09:05 PM']We're talking about when pregnancy starts, beginning with the assumption that life has began at conception regardless.[/quote]

[Angel*Star]

Yes, I caught that! I still stand that PREGNANCY begins at conception. My body starts working for the baby to implant. If it does not for some reason due to body malfunction, I was still pregnant, I just did not know it. I still say God loves that little one.

[princessgianna]

As some one has already posted, let's define the word "pregnant" from online Webster dictionary.

[quote]preg·nant 1 (prgnnt) KEY

ADJECTIVE:

1 Carrying developing offspring within the body.
2
a)Weighty or significant; full of meaning: a conversation occasionally punctuated by pregnant pauses.
b)Of great or potentially great import, implication, or moment: "It was a politically pregnant time in Poland" (New York).
3 Filled or fraught; replete: "This was, from the Party's point of view, both deplorable in itself and pregnant with danger for the future" (Robert Conquest).
4 Having a profusion of ideas; creative or inventive.
5 Producing results; fruitful: a pregnant decision.[/quote]

[quote]1 Carrying developing offspring within the body.[/quote]

If at conception , there is a child, then at conception the lady is pregnant.

Edited July 5, 2009 by princessgianna

[scardella]

I was talking with my brother-in-law over the weekend about it, and he gave me a more nuanced answer that struck me as a quite interesting answer:

He likened pregnancy to marriage. In marriage, once you give your vows, you are really and truly married. However, that marriage has not come to its fullness until it is consummated. (For example, before consummation, it is possible for the Church to dissolve the unconsummated marriage according to the Petrine (or is it Pauline?) principle.) In the same way, he stated, a woman is truly pregnant once the child is conceived. However, the fullness of pregnancy is not achieved until the little baby blastocyst is implanted into the waiting blanket of fertility that the woman's uterus has created, which forms the living bond between the mother and child.

On another note (particularly to Angel*Star):
Because the child's dignity is rooted in being made in the image and likeness of God, it is the child's existence alone that determines his right to life. That is, saying the mother is not pregnant yet has nothing to do with the understanding that the child has dignity and is loved by God. To tie that dignity to the mother carrying the child would be an injustice to the children conceived in IVF clinics. That conception is an injustice, no doubt, but they are made in God's image and likeness just like any other child.

[scardella]

Interesting article on Wikipedia:
[url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beginning_of_pregnancy_controversy"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beginning_of_...ncy_controversy[/url]

[Nihil Obstat]

IVF is a good point. If an egg and sperm are united in a petri dish, nobody is pregnant, no matter who the gametes belong to.

[Archaeology cat]

I feel like giving a sarcastic answer that, since the 40 weeks is counted from the first day of the LMP, that pregnancy thus starts before conception.

scardella, I like the answer your BIL gave.

[Sojourner]

[quote name='scardella' post='1912530' date='Jul 6 2009, 10:00 AM']I was talking with my brother-in-law over the weekend about it, and he gave me a more nuanced answer that struck me as a quite interesting answer:

He likened pregnancy to marriage. In marriage, once you give your vows, you are really and truly married. However, that marriage has not come to its fullness until it is consummated. (For example, before consummation, it is possible for the Church to dissolve the unconsummated marriage according to the Petrine (or is it Pauline?) principle.) In the same way, he stated, a woman is truly pregnant once the child is conceived. However, the fullness of pregnancy is not achieved until the little baby blastocyst is implanted into the waiting blanket of fertility that the woman's uterus has created, which forms the living bond between the mother and child.[/quote]
I like that answer.

[quote name='Nihil Obstat' post='1912820' date='Jul 6 2009, 05:10 PM']IVF is a good point. If an egg and sperm are united in a petri dish, nobody is pregnant, no matter who the gametes belong to.[/quote]
This is a good point. There is life (conception) but no pregnancy. And, if the embryo did not implant it would not be considered pregnancy, even if there had been conception.