Search

While legal scholars and Supreme Court Justices on both sides of the national abortion controversy argue that Roe v. Wade was incorrectly decided, this Article accepts the Court’s decision as a provisional holding that was based on the relevant societal, scientific, and legal records available to the Court in 1973. However, the stare decisis analysis outlined by the Court in Planned Parenthood v. Casey dictates that precedent can be overturned when a change in relevant facts robs a ruling of its original justification. If the Court agrees to hear a challenge to Roe, it will likely assess whether the relevant factual records relied upon by the Court in Roe are still responsive to present realities. In 1973, the Court in Roe held that a state’s interest in protecting life becomes compelling at fetal viability and fetuses do not have constitutional rights. The Court made these determinations because it could not find a consensus view on when life begins and it found that states were reluctant to recognize fetuses as legal persons outside of the abortion context. Today, the Court can take notice of recent scientific and legal developments: (1) an academic study found a consensus of biologists around the world (96%) agree with the biological fact that a human’s life begins at fertilization and (2) there are now eight legal contexts in which fetuses are protected as human persons under the law; today, 38 states have fetal homicide laws that recognize non-abortive killings of fetuses as homicides or murders of human persons. If the Court considers these developments, which establish fetuses as humans in fact and persons under the law, then it would likely hold that Casey’s stare decisis standard for reexamining precedent has been satisfied and Roe’s viability standard has been robbed of its original justification. Since U.S. Senators and Supreme Court Justices have held that all humans are persons within the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, these developments could also lead the Court to recognize that all humans have the constitutional right to equal protection under the law throughout their lives, from fertilization until death. Whether the Court overturns Roe and returns the abortion issue to the states, recognizes fetal rights, or uses a new justification to retain or expand abortion rights, this Article argues that the Court cannot allow our Nation to be governed by abortion jurisprudence which rests on outdated and incorrect factual records of the science of fetal development and the legal status of preborn humans.

Wood density and stiffness are among the most important wood quality traits for timber products and the prediction of these traits in trees planted across large geographic areas is of increasing interest for the forest industry. This study was conducted across 65 stands of E. nitens fibre-grown plantations, the most widely planted hardwood species in Tasmania, Australia, and aimed to (i) identify the main sources of variability in density (basic density, ρ b ) and stiffness (dynamic modulus of elasticity, E d ) of E. nitens fibre-grown trees, (ii) identify site, climatic, environmental and geomorphological factors across the E. nitens estate and tree characteristics at the site level that influence ρ b and E d of the trees, and based on this information (iii) develop models to predict the two wood properties at the tree and site level. An extensive dataset (n = 1880) of tree ρ b and E d measures was obtained through direct tree wood sampling for basic density and non-destructive acoustic assessments for stiffness. Large variation in tree density and stiffness was found across the study sites and among trees, with basic density ranging from 0.36 g cm−3 to 0.65 g cm−3 and stiffness from 9.2 GPa to 24.7 GPa. Candidate models to predict the two properties were developed on a training dataset and validated on a separate part of the dataset. The best tree-level models describing the variation of ρ b and E d included both tree and site factors. The best model describing ρ b variation on trees included tree diameter, maximum temperature of the warmest period and precipitation of the wettest period as explanatory variables, while the best E d model for trees included tree slenderness, height and basic density and the climatic variables, elevation and site index. The predictive models explained 31% of the total variability of ρ b and 59% of the total variability of E d across the validation sites. At the site level, the best models for density and stiffness included forest structure, climatic, and geomorphological variables, as well as plot location. The model for site density explained 73% of the variability of average density, while the model for site stiffness explained 35% of the variability of average stiffness. These findings demonstrate that different site and tree factors influence the two commercially important wood quality traits, and these can be used in combination to satisfactorily predict tree basic density and stiffness across different environments both at the tree and site level. This knowledge can be employed to support the forest and wood processing industry to expand the possible uses of E. nitens fibre-grown trees, to better manage the harvest for specific products, and to develop models for planning next generation plantings.

Many Americans disagree on ‘When does a human’s life begin?’ because the question is subject to interpretive ambiguity arising from Hume’s is-ought problem. There are two distinct interpretations of the question: descriptive (i.e., ‘When is a fetus classified as a human?’) and normative (i.e., ‘When ought a fetus be worthy of ethical and legal consideration?’). To determine if one view is more prevalent today, 2,899 American adults were surveyed and asked to select the group most qualified to answer the question of when a human’s life begins. The majority selected biologists (81%), which suggested Americans primarily hold a descriptive view. Indeed, the majority justified their selection by describing biologists as objective scientists that can use their biological expertise to determine when a human's life begins. Academic biologists were recruited to participate in a study on their descriptive view of when life begins. A sample of 5,502 biologists from 1,058 academic institutions assessed statements representing the biological view ‘a human’s life begins at fertilization’. This view was used because previous polls and surveys suggest many Americans and medical experts hold this view. Each of the three statements representing that view was affirmed by a consensus of biologists (75-91%). The participants were separated into 60 groups and each statement was affirmed by a consensus of each group, including biologists that identified as very pro-choice (69-90%), very pro-life (92-97%), very liberal (70-91%), very conservative (94-96%), strong Democrats (74-91%), and strong Republicans (89-94%). Overall, 95% of all biologists affirmed the biological view that a human's life begins at fertilization (5212 out of 5502). Historically, the descriptive view on when life begins has dictated the normative view that drives America's abortion laws: (1) abortion was illegal at ‘quickening’ under 18th century common law, (2) abortion was illegal at ‘conception’ in state laws from the late 1800’s to the mid-1900’s, and (3) abortion is currently legal before ‘viability’ due to 20th century U.S. Supreme Court cases Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. While this article’s findings suggest a fetus is biologically classified as a human at fertilization, this descriptive view does not entail the normative view that fetuses deserve legal consideration throughout pregnancy. Contemporary ethical and legal concepts that motivate reproductive rights might cause Americans to disregard the descriptive view or disentangle it from the normative view. However, these findings can help Americans move past the factual dispute on when life begins and focus on the operative question of when a fetus deserves legal consideration.

Somatic intrachromosomal recombination (SICR) can result in chromosomal inversion and deletion, mechanisms which are important in carcinogenesis. We have utilised a transgenic mouse model to study SICR inversion events in spleen cells. The transgenic construct is designed so that expression of an Escherichia coli lacZ transgene only occurs in a cell when an SICR inversion event occurs in the region of the transgene. The inversion events can then be detected by histochemical staining of frozen spleen sections for transgene expression and by polymerase chain reaction across the inversion breakpoints. The spontaneous inversion frequency in spleen rose 2-fold from 1.54 +/- 0.24 x 10(-4) (mean +/- SE) in 4-month-old transgenic mice to 3.12 +/- 0.67 x 10(-4) in 22-month-old mice. Four- or 8-month-old mice were treated with a single intraperitoneal injection of cyclophosphamide, with doses ranging from 0.01 to 100 mg/kg. The animals were killed 3 days after treatment. A significant induction of SICR inversions was detected at all doses with a 3.2-fold maximum induction of inversions detected at 10 mg/kg. These results suggest that the transgenic mouse model used here may be a sensitive model for studying the role of SICR in mutation and in studying risk assessment of environmental DNA-damaging agents.