ROSENBERG: What rights does a fetus have? Is it a crime victim?
STEINBOCK: I think the context matters tremendously. For example, when we’re talking about the right to terminate a pregnancy, we’re talking partly about the status of the fetus–whether it’s a legal person, whether it’s a moral person. When we’re talking about an attack on a pregnant woman, then those issues are no longer relevant. And so it is consistent to say that a woman has a constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy up until viability and even afterwards if her life or health is in danger. But if somebody attacks a pregnant woman and beats her viciously and causes her to have a miscarriage, that could very easily be seen as a crime.
Does viability matter?
Viability matters, again, depending on context. The reason that viability seems morally important is that the more developed the fetus gets, the later in gestation it is, the more it’s like a newborn baby–and the more it seems to deserve our protection. Which is why the Supreme Court said that states could prohibit abortion after viability [about 24 weeks].
How should the law treat someone who knowingly attacks a pregnant woman?
A number of states have done something I think is very sensible; they talk about whether the attacker should have known. So, if a reasonable person should have known that he [or she] was attacking a pregnant woman and was putting her pregnancy at risk, then he should be responsible. But if the attacker didn’t know she was pregnant–or it’s so early that no one could know–then it’s probably not relevant.
What should be done with all the frozen embryos left over from IVF clinics?
My own view is that the pre-implantation embryo is so far from being a baby that it would be absurd to treat it as if it were a full human person like you or me, or even as if it were a newborn infant. If people want to donate their leftover embryos to research, they should be able to do that. They shouldn’t have to keep them frozen forever or discard them, especially if they can be used in such a way that will eventually save lives, prolong lives and alleviate pain.
Can embryos be adopted?
Sure they can. Usually it’s called donating your embryos to an infertile couple. And in the beginning that’s what people did. Now there are some people who don’t want to donate their embryos because they think of the embryos as their potential children.
How do medical advances change the debate?
Sonograms have definitely had an effect on the abortion debate. The minute people were able to actually see the fetus, it affected them emotionally, even if it didn’t affect them theoretically.
Is cloning OK?
I think there are very good reasons to go slowly on reproductive cloning. So far there have been many indications that it is not safe. Cloned animals have had various kinds of birth defects; we need to be extremely careful. But I think it’s entirely different when you’re talking about using the same technology to create stem cells with the potential for treating Parkinson’s, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, burn victims, spinal-cord victims.
So when does life begin?
If we’re talking about life in the biological sense, eggs are alive, sperm are alive. Cancer tumors are alive. For me, what matters is this: When does it have the moral status of a human being? When does it have some kind of awareness of its surroundings? When it can feel pain, for example, because that’s one of the most brute kinds of awareness there could be. And that happens, interestingly enough, just around the time of viability. It certainly doesn’t happen with an embryo.
