I have a serious question for some of you. I've been reading a baby book that someone gave me (My wife and I are having a baby), and it says that 24 weeks is a huge step for viability. Over half the babies born at 24 weeks will survive outside the womb. As worried parents-to-be I remember my wife and I looking up the earliest that babies can survive outside the womb and there have been multiple cases of babies born during the 21st week and surviving. So this begs the question, when is a baby viable? If we bestow value and rights upon a viable baby, how do we decide which babies are viable at 21 weeks and which babies are not? I think when dealing with human life it's only right to air on the side of caution.
Also, if someone does not support giving rights to a viable baby I pose a question for you. Imagine your wife or girlfriend is 36 weeks pregnant, you guys are having a daughter and her name is picked out, you have a nursery set up, and you just can't wait for her to be here. Then one night your wife is violently attacked and she loses the baby. I don't know how anyone else would feel but my wife is 27 weeks pregnant and a situation like that would feel like the world just crashed down on us. Would you not want her attacker to be charged and punished for homicide? Or would you be satisfied with only an assault charge and feel that justice had been served? It might be hard to really know until you and the love of your life are pregnant but I'm curious about everyone's thoughts.