Law Students

Pre-Born

By Andrea

Let me take a break from my usual subjects to talk about everyone's favorite water-cooler subject: abortion! No, actually, this is just a criticism about political buzzwords. What is going on with some parts of the pro-life community using the phrase "pre-born babies"? Was "unborn" not getting the job done? Maybe it sounded too much like "undead" or something. I can't figure it out.

"Pre-born" sounds bizarre, mostly because everywhere else in the English language "pre" + a past participle means "previously." Your pre-owned car is not a car that's about to be owned, it's USED. Someone owned it before. Think about it: prepaid, prewashed, preheated, preapproved, and on and on.

So a "pre-born" baby is, like....a reincarnated baby. Groovy.  But it's not a baby that's not yet born. That's an unborn baby. Or, you know, an embryo and then a fetus, but I guess the ship's sailed on using the medical term. I was already up to my limit of hearing the furor over Obama speaking at Notre Dame (anyone want to explain why Catholicism-rejecting Jews shouldn't also be banned from speaking under this logic?), but when I heard this little neologism, that was more than my English major ears could take.

Full post as published by Peanut Butter Burrito on May 18, 2009 (boomark / email).