The 43-Day-Old Fetus

Henry Waxman has been trying to nitpick “abstinence-only” education:

Among the misconceptions cited by Waxman's investigators:

• A 43-day-old fetus is a "thinking person."

On the contrary, brain waves have been detected from fetuses at that stage.

The anti-anti-abortion side has the lame excuse that “By brain waves, one usually means the kinds of regular electrical patterns that can be observed in adults. These do not exist in the early fetus. Until roughly 30 weeks, you don’t see the kind of regular patterns that are characteristic of EEG’s in adults.” Actually, fetuses have been observed walking earliers than 30 weeks.

In any case, the thought processes characteristic of adults don't start until well after birth. Come to think of it, there's a voltage pulse at conception. That might possibly be going too far … but I wouldn't care to bet on that.

Update: More arguments here.

Another update: There's evidence adolescents are only potentially human.