05-09-2008, 01:14 AM
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Commentator
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Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Kangaroo Flat, Australia
Age: 24
Posts: 1,144
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BillyBob
I could certainly live without ever murdering my baby.
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But could you live without having sex?
Quote:
Originally Posted by BillyBob
No necessarily..... If a person murders a pregnant woman he can be charged with both the murder of the mother and the murder of her aborted unborn baby.
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Not over here. Your laws are a little different to ours. You have a law of Fetal Homocide, I believe, and this only comes into play when a woman is made to miscarry when she is harmed by another person. The law also comes into play if it is apparent the woman intended to keep her child. At least, I think this is how it works.
Over here, because the fetus is not legally a person, it has no rights. Now, I myself don't believe a fetus is a person until birth, but at the same time, I would be horrified if a woman were made to lose her baby, and charges were not laid. At most, the charge would be assault causing grevious bodily harm - note the fetus is not mentioned? It's almost as if it doesn't exist, and in the eyes of our law, it doesn't.
I would support fetal homocide laws, because if a woman intends to keep her child, no one has the right to take that choice from her. If fetal homocide laws were introduced in Australia, however, I would worry that the law regarding personhood would be changed, meaning the fetus is considered a person.
I don't think this is the case in the US, though...can anyone from the US confirm whether or not a fetus is considered a person? If not, how does such a law as Fetal Homocide come into play, seeing the fetus is not a human being and therefore cannot be 'murdered'?
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Why is it that, as a culture, we are more comfortable seeing two men holding guns than holding hands? ~ Ernest Gaines
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