Case of a F tus: Viable at Six Months

Abstract

Operation for Amaurosis, Impaired Vision, and Shortsightedness." The letter above alluded to contuins a full account of the principles on which this case and others have been treated, anid must therefore render their repetition here unnecessary. For the satisfaction of some of your readers, who may hesistate about performing operations on the muscles of undistorted eyes, where there is defect of sight, I beg to say, that in no one instance has the termination of any of my cases been attended by any incurable deformity.

The Limits of Viability

“…1,2 In the PubMed archives, we find, in 1841, "Case of a Foetus: Viable at Six Months," which carries the prescient first sentence, "There is no question in medico-legal science more difficult, and none more interesting and important, than that of the exact limits of utero-gestation, that is, the longest and shortest periods which a child may be carried in the womb, and yet survive." 3 In current times, obstetricians use the terms viability or viable in two contexts:…”

“…Even though legal discourse has depended on medicine to define the concept of viability, it is arguable that medicine fails to clarify the confusion, though it is a term that has been used for nearly 200 years. Reference to viability in medical writing goes back at least to 1832, when William Potts Dewees in Compendius System of Midwifery defines viability as, “the capacity to sustain life, rather than the mere signs of this condition.” 1 , 2 In the PubMed archives, we find, in 1841, “Case of a Foetus: Viable at Six Months,” which carries the prescient first sentence, “There is no question in medico-legal science more difficult, and none more interesting and important, than that of the exact limits of utero-gestation, that is, the longest and shortest periods which a child may be carried in the womb, and yet survive.” 3 …”