FETUS: Sorry, they're not human

Observing an unborn baby develop is fascinating! From a single-cell eukaryotic animal, to a stem-cell sponge-like blastocyst, to an embryo with re-absorbable tail and gill ridges and herbivore eyes on side of head, to prosimian/monkey/ape to us. Watching it develop an appendix for koala-like leaf eating. Seeing it develop fingers and toes from an ancestor of 380 Million Years Ago (MYA).

Up the evolutionary tree, life-form climbs inside its mother’s belly as it evolves from other common ancestors: insects at 700 MYA; fish at 350 MYA; toads at 340 MYA; platypus at 191 MYA; kangaroo at 138 MYA; cat at 113 MYA; dolphin at 60 MYA; lemur at 55 MYA; new world monkey at 45 MYA; orangutan at 13 MYA; chimps at 5 MYA; then, us.

Yet it is born with a +4.1 MYA chimp narrow knee joints and needs three to 12 months to develop human broad knee joints for easy upright walking.

A fertilized egg, a blastocyst and embryo, a fetus are many things. But one fact is they are not humans, only potential humans, future humans.

CECIL KELLY III

Coeur d’Alene