Abortion Language Debate
The Boston Globe used "fetus" in reference to child killed in womb, later says it should have used "unborn baby" for almost full-term dead.

The child actually was delivered and lived for a few hours, information the paper didn't know at the time of the original story, which the Globe considers to have settled the right word as "baby." This is interesting, in light of partial birth abortion. Viability was seemingly the standard, but only half the standard or applied inconsistantly, or something.

The Globe's conclusion, that they were dehumanizing the death of the child, is the right conclusion and one that ought to be understood in the full spectrum of the usage of "fetus." The Globe's cavet that it was an unusual story is a cop-out and untrue in every story where "fetus" is used.