re: #608 Obdicut

Using ‘parasite’ language is counterproductive, and not biologically correct. A parasite is something that has evolved that as a strategy for survival. A parasite doesn’t have a specially-prepared-by-the-host mechanism for keeping it alive and healthy, it takes advantage.

True about it being biologically incorrect. And for that matter about it being “counterproductive”. And yet, it’s a separate entity that takes nutrients from its host without providing anything to the host’s benefit. It endangers its host by its mere existence. By conventional meaning it is a parasite.

For what it’s worth I’ve struggled with finding another word that clearly shows it isn’t, yet, a person which hasn’t been coopted by the pro-lifers to be “just another word for baby”. Not biologically, of course, but in conventional understanding. The only word I’ve found that stands up is parasite. I can defend it, because if they go the route you just did I can then use words like blastocyst and embryo and fetus and use their own arguments.