The fetal phase is the phase of prenatal development from week 9 (the end of the embryonic period (German), Carnegie stage 23). In this phase, growth and maturation of the already established organs take place — the fundamental organogenesis is complete.
Distinction from the Embryonic Phase
The fetal phase follows upon the embryonic phase (German). Whereas in the embryonic phase the organs and body axes are established, the fetal phase is about their growth and functional maturation. Structurally, the fetus is medically regarded as a “small adult” — all essential organs are present and begin to take up their functions.
Classification in Personal Ontology
The fetal phase changes nothing about the personhood of the human being. Whoever is a human person from the fusion of the gametes onward (cf. beginning of human existence) remains so through all phases of prenatal development — the embryonic, fetal, and birth phases. The actualization of the dimensions of personhood changes; personhood itself remains uninjured.
The differentiation between the embryonic and fetal phases is thus a purely medical-descriptive division into stages, not an ontological difference in the status of personhood. The fetus is a person; the embryo is a person; the newborn child is a person — all in the same first dimension.
Consequence for Bioethics
From the identity of the status of personhood through all prenatal phases it follows: interventions that end the person in her existence — abortion, the production of surplus embryos in IVF, preimplantation genetic testing (German) with selective discarding — are in the fetal phase just as much violations of the personalist norm as in the embryonic phase.
The temporal differentiation of prenatal development changes nothing about the ontological status of the person — and thus nothing about her dignity and her right to life.
Ontological Classification
Superordinate concept: Prenatal phase (German)
Ontological relations:
- follows upon: embryonic phase (German) (CS 23 as endpoint)
- characterized by: growth and maturation of already established organs
- preserves: personhood in the first dimension
- presupposed by: birth
Chapter assignment: Chapter 4: What Is Human Personhood? (German)
Sources
- O’Rahilly, Ronan; Müller, Fabiola (2010): Developmental Stages in Human Embryos: Revised and New Measurements. Cells Tissues Organs 192(2): 73—84. — Carnegie-stages standard.
- Bexten, Raphael E. (2017): Was ist menschliches Personsein? Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, diss. — Prenatal phases and personhood.
- Spaemann, Robert (1996): Persons. The Difference between ‘Someone’ and ‘Something’, transl. Oliver O’Donovan. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. — Not a potential but a real status of personhood from the very beginning.
See also
- Embryonic Phase (German)
- Prenatal Phase (German)
- Beginning of Human Existence
- Organogenesis
- Carnegie Stages
- Personhood
- Right to Life
- Abortion
Generated by querying the Personhood ontology.