FYI: Check out my legal series, Choses In Action, it’s really interesting if you want to know more about tertium quid!
To fully grasp the concept of tertium quid, it requires some learning if you are unfamiliar with legal concepts. So I am reading some old legal documents and sharing them in my video section. To fully understand tertium quid, you should know the definition:
ter·ti·um quid | \ ˌtər-shē-əm-ˈkwid
1 : a middle course or an intermediate component where there are two systems of law and two orders of courts, there must … be some tertium quid to deal with conflicts of law and jurisdiction— Ernest Baker 2 : a third party of ambiguous status there was a man and his wife and a tertium quid— Rudyard Kipling
So in our example, at first breath we have baby, mom, and what follows after baby exits mom – or the after-birth. Tertium quid in this example is the placenta and umbilical cord.
Signing and accepting the date and time of “birth” creates the tertium quid but do you know why? In law, a birthdate can only be given to an abortion. Are you an abortion? Are you alive? These are important ideas, because I know you and you are quite alive. So then the conversation must continue, knowing that you are not an abortion or a monster or lost at sea.
Does it matter that President Trump banned and took fetal tissue off the market? Well, the Corona Virus happened and a halt to commerce ensued weeks after this ban went into effect, so you tell me. The market thrives with fetal tissue and commerce will not return until the ban is lifted.
The ambiguous third party to our story, the placenta, was violently stolen so what happens to baby? He gets a fake “birthday,” forgiving the 9 months after fertilization, creating this very real situation we find ourselves in now.
