$node->teaser in body

The variable $node->teaser is available for teaser and RSS but not the body. Can we please have it available?

print $teaser = substr($node->content['body']['#value'], 0, 220)

I'm using the code above right now but it still doesn't help as teasers have variable length.

It's been requested a lot in the past:
http://drupal.org/node/136360
http://drupal.org/node/256218