"Personhood" bill defeated in ND

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[daMamma]

Last year we had a whole big To-Do over abortion, whether to have or not to have the choice in North Dakota (as with many other states).  Had this particular bill in the legislature passed it would have completely outlawed any abortions for any reason.  It also would have made it very difficult for doctors. 

How does one know for sure that there are or are not a few newly splitting cells going on?  Would every woman within that age group with the possible ability to conceive be treated as potentially pregnant by all medical staff?  This in itself can pose problems with how to treat injuries and illnesses.  Would a woman have to first PROVE she is not pregnant?  What happens if a woman miscarries or has a still birth?  Does she then run the risk of being charged with murder?  What of the doctor that treated her, do they run a similar risk.

This would certainly have had many consequences in the realm of research and IVF situations.  Would all those little groups of cells have to be permenently frozen until someone adopted them?  Who gets in trouble if fertilized cells don't implant? 

This whole issue opens so many cans of worms and slides down so many slippery slopes it is hard to keep them all straight. 

from Yahoo news:

Code:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090404/ap_on_re_us/abortion_restrictions

BISMARCK, N.D. – North Dakota's Senate has rejected legislation to bestow human rights on fertilized human eggs, whether they be in the womb or in a laboratory.

Senators voted 29-16 Friday to reject legislation that sought to define as a human being "any organism with the genome of homo sapiens." The "personhood" status would include a developing embryo from the moment of conception, whether inside or outside the womb.
<snip>

Same story at all the following links.  Sadly news people only copy from the AP, UP and Wire rather than looking into a story and adding to it with more in depth facts.

Code:

http://www.examiner.com/a-1943263~_Personhood__bill_defeated_in_North_Dakota_Senate.html?cid=rss-US

Code:

http://www.mercurynews.com/nationworld/ci_12071149

Code:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/04/04/ap/national/main4918734.shtml

[futurexpat?]

I had heard about this before. I'm glad to hear this was defeated. It was an awful idea, but I'm not sure it will die out in the other states. This might just give them more momentum, but I hope not.