The baby is as good as dead already. A neural tube defect prevented his or her skull and brain from forming, and the child has no chance of attaining anything resembling consciousness let alone "personhood." The condition is called "anencephaly." Over half of such babies which are not aborted (about 5% of the total) do not survive to birth, and most of the rest die within hours from heart and lung failure, due to the lack of enough brainpower to keep them going - the article's notion of "days" is highly optimistic. One such baby, "Baby K." was kept alive with repeated heroic measures and ventilator support to the tune of $500,000 in 1992 dollars for two and a half years, before the body finally gave out due to heart failure.
Do a web search on "anencephaly" and take a clear look at what the situation here is. It's gruesome and tragic, but that's life sometimes.
"In fact, anencephaly may be one of the few medical conditions that all doctors agree is futile to treat."
It's true, there's a slippery slope and "grey" areas, but the other side of the abortion debate deals with that as well. That's why they couldn't bring themselves to condemn sucking the brains out of a healthy baby, because they feared if they did, they'd have lost a major battle.
Surely those of us who recognize and accept the humanity of the unborn can still refrain from such irrational impulses in the other direction.
Please reread post 32.
And please stop taking away my nephew’s “personhood”. He may have only lived an hour and a half, but he was just as much of a baby as any other newborn.
He had a pain reflex and moved. He may not have cried but he was very much a person.
Just cause someone is going to die doesn’t make it right to kill them.
It’s really that simple. What the hell is wrong with giving birth and holding your child while he dies? This teenager doesn’t have to worry about ruining her social life or changing diapers or missing out on college.
All she has to do is be a mother for a day or two. To share some love with a creature that is flesh of her flesh.