This is a news story coming out of the Philipinnes remarkable to me only to show what lengths we’ll go to in order to avoid truth…and yet it still comes out:
A garbage collector could not help but express his anger after discovering an 8-month-old fetus from garbage plastic bags in the Kamuning station of the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) past Thursday midnight.
Jun Portis, a regular garbage collector in the MRT station, said he took the garbage bags from the second floor.
While pulling out garbage from the bag, Portis said he saw the fetus wrapped in plastic….
Senior Police Officer 2 Boy Trago, Quezon City police investigator, said that it was obvious that the baby was a victim of abortion.
Trago and other policemen brought the fetus to the police station
Three “fetus” mentions and one “baby” mention. They can’t even dignify the death of the child by calling it a baby. A HUMAN BABY!!!!! What’s so difficult about that?
August 6, 2010 at 7:14 am
Matthew,
I am guessing it is more of a difficulty with the English language and the idea that the word "fetus" and the dead baby are interchangeable. The reporter should have known better, as it is his job to report accurately.
On the other hand, the garbage collector certainly knew what he had found. In the following phrase you omitted from the report(right after "..Portis said he saw the fetus wrapped in plastic…."), he said:
"Akala ko hayop lamang poi yon eh. Doon ko lang po nakita na tao pala,"
translated:
"Initially, I thought it was a dead animal. Only when I looked at it did I find out it was actually a human being,"
August 6, 2010 at 12:31 pm
I want to cry. So sad. oor child.
August 6, 2010 at 12:32 pm
poor child
August 6, 2010 at 1:56 pm
Willy J, thaknks for the translation. But the problem is that the news seemed intent on saying "fetus" but every time they interviewed a normal person they said "human being" or "baby."
It just drives me crazy that news organizations seem intent on dehumanizing.
August 6, 2010 at 2:16 pm
I think it is just a matter of trying to convey that it was not an 8 month old baby, as in: a baby that was born 8 months ago – as opposed to a baby that has been in the womb for 8 months. Maybe they were only trying to convey that?
Or maybe you are right and they just can't bring themselves to use the term. I am surprised that would be the case coming out of the Philippines.
August 6, 2010 at 3:54 pm
It is especially sad when one has lost babies due to miscarriages. Makes one ill— to think that babies that were wanted couldn't make it to birth, and thse poor infants were destroyed on purpose.
August 6, 2010 at 7:20 pm
I have one daughter born 2 months earlier in the gestational process than this poor baby. I got to watch her complete her third trimester in a hospital incubator, growing from 1.5lbs to 6lbs before coming home. I have no doubt about the humanity of an unborn baby.
WillyJ, you're probably right about the usage in the first instance, since "baby at 8-months gestation" is a bit of a mouthful and might be less comprehensible to some readers. But later instances should just have said "baby". (Once outside the womb, isn't it a baby instead of a fetus?)
August 7, 2010 at 10:21 pm
How awful, for the baby and the man who found her 🙁