[aruanan]

It is "parasitic" in that sense; and when the parameters established by natural law have been reached, the product is expelled, not by its will but by the will of the body that carries it, the autonomic nervous system over which neither the mother nor the offspring have any control.

This is simply physiologically untrue. The signals to initiate labor come from the fetus, not the mother. And if you're going to talk about "skewed" ways of looking at things, referring to a developing individual as a tumor or a parasite is definitely skewed, even more so than when PETA folks try to dissuade kids from eating of meat by personalizing the animal. Besides, there is no such thing as "natural law" that oversees and regulates and directs and controls. "Natural law" is just another way of saying "here are regularities we observe in the way things operate; given a similar set of circumstances, we can expect a similar outcome." The outcome depends entirely on the existing circumstances and not at all on our understanding of them or our codification of our experiences with them.

[kosta50]

This is simply physiologically untrue

There are many "trigger" factors that can induce the body to "put forth" the product. The mechanism you propose is a single study as far as I know and is believed to be a factor in human fetuses as it is in mice.

At any rate, when an apple becomes ripe and heavy enough, the gravity will pull it off the tree. When the child is "ripe," biochemical signals start a cascade that results in delivery. None of it is done by any volition.

Assuming that theory is correct, the child simply produces a hormone, or a hormone-like substance (no will involved here, it's strictly maturational) inside the womb, and that initiates the first signal ("I am ready!"). It is still up to the body of the mother to respond to the stimulus and that response is also autonomic and free of any volition.

Knowing something about biological sciences I would venture to say that there are probably dozens of stimuli in concert that induce labor.

And if you're going to talk about "skewed" ways of looking at things, referring to a developing individual as a tumor or a parasite is definitely skewed

There is nothing skewed about it. The child is "hitching a ride" inside the mother and that makes it a "parasitic" relationship. Dictionary.com defines it as "an organism that lives on or in an organism of another species, known as the host, from the body of which it obtains nutriment."

The fact that it is actively replicating and growing in volume and mass makes it tumor-like from a biological point of view.

Besides, there is no such thing as "natural law" that oversees and regulates and directs and controls

Sure there is. You are sitting on earth because the inherent property of any mass is gravitational attraction to another mass. Gravity controls your presence on earth. It directs your existence to this planet. It regulates which way rivers will flow, and whether you fall or you don't fall when you trip.

Gravity keeps this planet from shedding all its mass into space, and solar gravity controls the speed of our planet around the sun, as well as the entire solar system; and gravity keeps our galaxy in order and all other galaxies behave according to this gravitational force; it also causes galactic collisions and other cataclysmic events. It is universal.