You are still not addressing the difference between “a portion of individuals will be capable of having a viable pregnancy at this age” with “adulthood”.
So as mentioned earlier, some nine year olds have survived pregnancy, especially in the last few decades. The mortality rate is absurd, and pretty much all neurological hallmarks of adulthood are nowhere near complete… but they do fit your definition perfectly. They can conceive healthy offspring.
Would you call them adults? Would you lower the age of consent to 9? Assuming in good faith your answer will be “no” then you must, by definition, introduce other conditional aspects to “adulthood” that go beyond the ability to sustain pregnancy, which was my point.
You are still not addressing the difference between “a portion of individuals will be capable of having a viable pregnancy at this age” with “adulthood”.
My original comment never made that claim:
By human biology, a 14 year old is sexually mature and capable of becoming a parent. The terms “child, teen, adolescent, adult” are all social constructs. We as a society have drawn arbitrary lines and even changed them over time.
The fact that we may define adulthood at 16 or 18 or 21 (depending on the country or the context) but that indigenous cultures defined adulthood (subject to completion of the rite of passage) at 12 or 13 is strong evidence of the social constructedness of these terms. That’s what I wanted to illustrate along with the biology examples showing that maternal mortality is a tradeoff and not an indicator of sexual maturity.
You are still not addressing the difference between “a portion of individuals will be capable of having a viable pregnancy at this age” with “adulthood”.
So as mentioned earlier, some nine year olds have survived pregnancy, especially in the last few decades. The mortality rate is absurd, and pretty much all neurological hallmarks of adulthood are nowhere near complete… but they do fit your definition perfectly. They can conceive healthy offspring.
Would you call them adults? Would you lower the age of consent to 9? Assuming in good faith your answer will be “no” then you must, by definition, introduce other conditional aspects to “adulthood” that go beyond the ability to sustain pregnancy, which was my point.
My original comment never made that claim:
The fact that we may define adulthood at 16 or 18 or 21 (depending on the country or the context) but that indigenous cultures defined adulthood (subject to completion of the rite of passage) at 12 or 13 is strong evidence of the social constructedness of these terms. That’s what I wanted to illustrate along with the biology examples showing that maternal mortality is a tradeoff and not an indicator of sexual maturity.