Abortion

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Abortion \A*bor"tion\ ([.a]*b[^o]r"sh[u^]n), n. [L. abortio, fr.
     aboriri. See {Abort}.]
     1. The act of giving premature birth; particularly, the
        expulsion of the human fetus prematurely, or before it is
        capable of sustaining life; miscarriage.
        [1913 Webster]


  
     2. The immature product of an untimely birth; a fetus which
        has been delivered prematurely due to spontaneous or
        voluntary abortion, and is dead.
        [1913 Webster +PJC]
  
     3. (Biol.) Arrest of development of any organ, so that it
        remains an imperfect formation or is absorbed.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. Any fruit or produce that does not come to maturity, or
        anything which in its progress, before it is matured or
        perfect; a complete failure; as, his attempt proved an
        abortion.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     5. the removal of a fetus from the womb prior to normal
        delivery in a manner such as to cause the death of the
        fetus; also called {voluntary abortion}, or when performed
        by a physician, {therapeutic abortion}.
        [PJC]
  
     Note: In the 1913 Webster there was the following note
           appended to sense 1:
           [hand] It is sometimes used for the offense of
           procuring a premature delivery, but strictly the early
           delivery is the abortion, "causing or procuring
           abortion" is the full name of the offense. --Abbott.
           [PJC]
  
     6. something considered to be a repulsive or monstrous
        variant of a normal object; a monstrosity.
        [PJC]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  abortion
       n 1: termination of pregnancy
       2: failure of a plan [syn: {miscarriage}]

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  ABORTION, med jur. and criminal law. The expulsion of the foetus before the
  seventh mouth of utero-gestation, or before it is viable. q.v.
       2. The causes of this accident are referable either to the mother, or
  to the foetus and its dependencies. The causes in the mother may be: extreme
  nervous susceptibility, great debility, plethora, faulty conformation, and
  the like; and it is frequently induced immediately by intense mental
  emotion.  The causes seated in the foetus are its death, rupture of the
  membranes, &c.
       3. It most frequently occurs between the 8th and 12th weeks of
  gestation.  When abortion is produced with a malicious design, it becomes a
  misdemeanor, at common law, 1 Russell, 553; and the party causing it may be
  indicted and punished.
       4. The criminal means resorted to for the purpose of destroying the
  foetus, may be divided into general and local.  To the first belong
  vivisection, emetics, cathartics diuretics, emmenagogues &c. The second
  embraces all kinds of violence directly applied.
       5. When, in consequence of the means used to produce abortion, the
  death of the woman ensues, the crime is murder.
       6. By statute a distinction is made between a woman quick with child,
  (q.v.) and one who, though pregnant, is not so, 1 Bl. Com. 129.
  Physiologists, perhaps with reason, think that the child is a living being
  from the moment of conception. 1 Beck. Med. Jur. 291.
       General References. 1 Beck, 288 to 331; and 429 to 435; where will be
  found an abstract of the laws of different countries, and some of the states
  punishing criminal abortion; Roscoe, Cr. Ev. 190; 1 Russ. 553; Vilanova y
  Manes, Materia Criminal Forense, Obs. 11, c. 7 n. 15-18.  See also 1 Briand,
  Med. Leg. 1 ere partie, c. 4, where the question is considered, how far
  abortion is justifiable, and is neither a crime nor a misdemeanor. See Alis.
  Cr. L. of Scot. 628.