Is a fetus consider a living thing?

Yes because it's part of a living woman. The blood from the mother nurtures the baby.

By the time a woman finds out their pregnant there's usually a heartbeat.

Oh hurray. We've achieved a new low in logic here.

A human fetus IS alive. Obviously you've never carried one. They sure do move a lot, which dead things don't do.

And obviously they're human. It's ridiculous to suggest otherwise. Do you also doubt whether kittens in utero are feline?

I was going to post a paragraph about the cultures that DO celebrate the possible conception date of the child, but decided that was pearls before swine.

Edit: "means a human being who has been born and is alive" <----legalese, not science. They have to write laws this way, or the term homicide could be applied in court to a dog who'd been killed by a car.

"A human being [not any other kind of being] who has been born and is alive [meaning "was alive BEFORE THE HOMICIDE," since nobody is alive after the homocide].

Besides, New York is not the only state in the union. Other states have laws that consider it anything from homicide to aggravated murder to purposely cause the death of an unborn human, especially one past the threshold of viability.

It all depends on your beliefs.

I perosnally believe that, yes, they are a living thing. Then again they aren't considered a fetus until about the second trimester of pregnancy. Though, I have strong beliefs against abortion. I personally say yes it has the right to be protected at conception.

The date of birth is when they are born because until then they cannot live on their own and depend on their mother inside the womb. The day they are born is when they can start to breath properly, eat on their own (with assistance from parents), ect.

Since I myself have had miscarriages I can say that no matter how long the baby has spent in the womb it hurts physically and emotionally when they die inside of the mother. It's like it takes a part of you with it and you're never really the same afterwards. This is why I consider it a living thing from day one and believe that they have a right to be protected from conception.

Yes it is. The date of BIRTH can't possibly be before they are BORN! A baby who is still inside it's mother isn't born yet.

It is part of a living thing, the woman or girl who is pregnant, no more. To argue otherwise is to say that all females are no more then organs to contain and carry other people, which denies their humanity.

Depends on who you ask