Does natural rights theory and its historical applications have any relevancy in our modern society? Are the natural rights now given to so many marginalized segments of society applicable to pre-born babies? Before the American Civil War, the three-fifths clause to the Constitution counted slaves as both human beings and property. One hundred years later, the Roe v. Wade decision established "viability" to be twenty-four weeks gestation, three-fifths of the standard forty weeks gestation for a term pregnancy, thus establishing the three-fifths clause by making human beings nothing more than a choice.