[ad. F. viabilité (1812), or f. VIABLE a.1: see -ITY.] The quality or state of being viable; capacity for living; the ability to live under certain conditions.
In common use from c. 1860.
1843. Bouvier, Law Dict. U.S., Viability, med. jur., an aptitude to live after birth; extra uterine life.
1853. J. Y. Simpson, Obstet. Path. & Pract., 21. I have repeatedly been astonished at the viability of the infant after traction had been applied to it.
1870. Maudsley, Body & Mind, 44. The general and ultimate result of breeding in and in is to produce barrenness and sterility, children of a low degree of viability and of imperfect mental and physical development.
1883. Cent. Mag., Sept., 727/1. An animal or plant which is only partly adapted to its conditions of existence is ugly in exact proportion to its lack of viability.
transf. 1893. C. B. Upton, Bases Relig. Belief (1894), 157. It means also spiritual viability or immortality.
