Then, obviously, if it is implanted into a woman as can happen, it isn't an intruder, it is a guest and it is producing reasonable return for its resources as it is clearly providing some emotional and/or genetic support for a species lineage.
I think when we discuss the "parasitic" biological relationship between a fetus and its host, we are referring only to the fact that the relationship is not
biologically symbiotic; it is a
biologically parasitic relationship.
Other organisms more conventionally understood to be "parasites" are not evil, after all; they no doubt make contributions to the world at large, or benefit nature in some way.
But to mix up a
social or
emotional contribution with a biological definition of parasitism is silly.
Of course many people love their fetuses. That does not mean that the fetus loves them back, however, or that it would cease extracting resources from their body, even if the host wanted it to, even if the host were ill or dying.
I'm not sure about your stance on rape pregnancies; is it that the fetus is making an adequate return by "perpetuating the species"?
What about fetuses- wanted or unwanted- who are transexed or otherwise suffering from defects that will leave them incapable of reproducing?
They will not be contributing to the "perpetuation of the species".
Are they, then, parasites?
The definition of "parasite" is broad, and can include even adult hman beings who leech off the system or off other people.
That the relationship between a fetus and its host is biologically a parasitic- not a symbiotic- one is not in question. It is fact.
That pointing this out often offends people (and leads them to make silly statements about how "perpetuating the species" makes the relationship
not a biologically parasitic one... or worse, I've had women tell me that because pregnacy made their breasts bigger, their hair thicker, or yattada-yattada, the fetus was somehow engaged in a biologically symbiotic relationship with them :roll: ) is something I am aware of and generally try to be sensitive to. I am not oblivious to the needs and feelings of others.
The fetus extracts nutrients from the body of its host; that is its whole function. It does not return anything to her body but waste products, which her organs must then process and excrete, putting a lot of additional strain on them.
Whether or not the fetus is a biological parasite (it probably does not meet the scientific definition, since- as has been mentioned- the two are of the same species), and whether or not the pregnant woman is overjoyed at the prospect of being pregnant and thrilled to make the necessary sacrifices to produce healthy offspring, the relationship between the pregnant woman and the fetus
is nevertheless a biologically parasitic one.
Neither the pregnant woman's emotional state nor any future contribution the fetus might make to society or to the perpetuation of the species negates or alters that fact.
I wanted my children very much, and it was my choice to have them.
But that doesn't negate the fact that the biological effect they had on my body and my health (worse, because I was extremely young, not entirely physically mature, and because the two pregnancies were very close together) was not positive.
I suffered from Pica, a disorder which is caused by malnourishment, and which caused me to compulsively eat things which are not normally considered edible, such as dirt, chalk, rocks, cat litter (clean cat litter, not used), etc.
The urge to eat these things was absolutely unavoidable. Nobody who had seen me sneaking- half-asleep- to the kitchen in the middle of the night, getting cat litter from the bag under the sink, and shoving handfuls of it into my mouth in a compulsive, instinctive effort to replace my depleted bodily resources could possibly tell me that the relationship I had with my children while they were in utero was in any way biologically symbiotic.
That's one example; it got worse. I slept through my second pregnancy, literally. I only got up to use the bathroom and eat occasionally. I was so anemic, so fundamentally unwell, that I couldn't keep my eyes open for more than a few minutes at a time. This was primarily because of anemia. I was almost like a person in a vegetative state, or a coma, only surfacing occasionally. One day when I was 7 months pregnant, I got up to use the bathroom and my water broke. At the hospital, they gave me drugs to try to stop the contractions, but it didn't work; my youngest son was born later that day. He had to stay in an isolette in the neonatal ICU for the first weeks of his life, and nearly died a couple of times in his first year; first of a previously undetected birth defect called Pyloric Stenosis (a malformation of the stomach/ esophagus; by the time we got him to the hospital to have the defect surgically corrected, he was nearly dead of dehydration/ electrolyte imbalance from all his vomiting). Next, at about six months, of sleep apnea, when I found him not breathing in his crib. Luckily, he was able to be revived, and did not suffer permanent loss of cognitive function. He had to stay in the icu for over two weeks that time while they ran tests to make sure he wasn't brain damaged from oxygen deprivation.
It took me many years- perhaps until my mid-twenties- to fully recover my health and strength. My immune system was wrecked, and I had terrible anemia. I also suffered some permanent bone density loss.
The fact that I was glad my children were here and wouldn't have traded them to have my health back does not change the fact that the relationship between a fetus and its host is biologically parasitic.
Social and emotional benefits don't come into play when discussing biology; that's just sentimental silliness.
One could not really say that the relationship between a pregnant woman and her fetus is
emotionally symbiotic, either, since it is inherently one-sided; the pregnant woman may love the Z/E/F, but the Z/E/F does not love her in return.