Science: Acorns and Oak Trees

Abortion advocates may ask pro-lifers, “Do you sit under an acorn for shade?” Their point is that one does not do that because an acorn isn’t an oak tree. Likewise, they argue, fetuses aren’t human beings.

But an acorn is of the oak family, it’s just not as developed as an oak tree. Likewise a fetus (or an infant for that matter) is of the human family, but is not as developed as an adult. Indeed, one wouldn’t sit under an acorn for shade, just as one wouldn’t have an infant drive a car. But just because something—or someone—cannot function in a certain way due to a low level of development, that doesn’t mean that being doesn’t exist within a particular species.

The fetus has the potential to become an adult. It does not, however, have the potential to become a human because it already is a human. In the same way, the acorn has the potential to become a large oak tree. But it does not have the potential to be an oak because it already is an oak.