Without Supreme Courts, where would we get our grim humor?

Angering both sides of the abortion debate, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a fetus is a body part, akin to teeth, skin and hair that are eventually shed.

The ruling unanimously upheld the conviction of a man who tried to induce a miscarriage by slipping his girlfriend labor-inducing drugs. Edwin Sandoval argued he could not be charged with attempting to commit aggravated assault because the fetus was the target, not the mother.

Though the court held that the 5-week-old fetus was part of the woman's body, Chief Justice William J. Sullivan issued a separate concurring opinion saying a fetus might have "its own independent existence."

This is so terribly, profoundly stupid as to make you think every member of every judiciary in the nation should be forced to take, and pass, two years of elementary microbiology ("Class, no body part has different DNA from any other") before being allowed to sit on a bench. And that doesn't even touch on the stupidity of calling a child a body part.

There was a good point at the end of this, though:

Defense attorney Paula Waite said if the fetus is its own life form, the state's abortion laws are in question. If the fetus is a body part, laws increasing the penalty for assaulting a pregnant woman could be jeopardized.

Kinda points out what a silly balancing act we're doing now, doncha think?