Fetal rights

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Fetal rights (alternatively prenatal rights [1] ) are the moral rights or legal rights of the human fetus under natural and civil law. The term fetal rights came into wide usage after Roe v. Wade , the 1973 landmark case that legalized abortion in the United States and was essentially overturned in 2022. [2] [3] The concept of fetal rights has evolved to include the issues of maternal substance use disorders, including alcohol use disorder and opioid use disorder. [4] Most international human rights charters "clearly reject claims that human rights should attach from conception or any time before birth." [5] While most international human rights instruments lack a universal inclusion of the fetus as a person for the purposes of human rights, the fetus is granted various rights in the constitutions and civil codes of some countries. [6]

Contents

Prenatal or fetal?

There are jurisdictions where children in the prenatal stage are assigned rights even before they reach the fetal stage. For example, in Italy, embryos are considered subjects of law already after fertilization and even before implantation (if fertilization happens in vitro). [7] The term fetus itself is not exactly suitable for legal purposes, as it denotes only a part of the prenatal period with a starting point that remains unclear. Furthermore, its archetypal meaning is associated with plants, contributing to the dehumanization of the child in the prenatal stage. [8]

History

In antiquity, the fetus was sometimes protected by restrictions on abortion.[ citation needed ] Some versions of the Hippocratic Oath indirectly protected the fetus by prohibiting abortifacients. [9] Until approximately the mid-19th century, philosophical views on the fetus were influenced in part by Aristotelian concept of delayed hominization. [10] According to it, human fetuses only gradually acquire their souls, and in the early stages of pregnancy the fetus is not fully human. [10] Relying on examinations of miscarried fetuses, Aristotle believed that male fetuses acquire their basic form at around day 40, and female ones at day 90. [10] For Pythagoreans, however, fetal life was co-equal in moral worth with adult human life from the moment of conception; similar views were held by Stoics. [11] Ancient Athenian law did not recognise fetal right to life before the ritual acknowledgement of the child. [12] The law, however, allowed for the postponement of the execution of sentenced pregnant women until a baby was delivered. [13]

Several Hindu texts on ethics and righteousness, such as Dharmaśāstra , give fetus a right to life from conception, although in practice such texts are not always followed. [14]

The property law of the Roman Empire granted fetus inheritance rights. [15] As long as the fetus was conceived before the testator's death (usually, the father) and then born alive, their inheritance rights were equal to those born before the testator's death. [15] Even though under Roman law the fetus was not a legal subject, it was a potential person whose property rights were protected after birth. [15] Roman jurist Ulpian noted that "in the Law of the Twelve Tables he who was in the womb is admitted to the legitimate succession, if he has been born". [16] Another jurist Julius Paulus similarly noted, that "the ancients provided for the free unborn child in such a way that they preserved for it all legal rights intact until the time of birth". [16] The inheritance rights of the fetus were means of fulfilling the testator's will. [15] The interests of the fetus could be protected by a custodian, usually a male relative, but in some cases a woman herself could be appointed the custodian. [17] The Digest granted the fetus consanguinity rights, [18] vesting the protection of fetal interests in the praetor. The Digest also prohibited the execution of pregnant women until delivery. [19] The Roman law also envisaged that if a slave mother had been free for any period between the time of the conception and childbirth, the child would be regarded as born free. [20] Although the mother might have become slave again before the childbirth, it was considered that the unborn should not be prejudiced by the mother's misfortune. [20] At the same time, Greek and Roman sources do not mention issues of alcohol consumption by pregnant women. [21] On that basis it is believed that Greeks and Romans were not aware of the fetal alcohol syndrome. [21]

A baby holding the "Petition of the Unborn Babes", 18th century illustration. The Petition of the Unborn Babes.jpg
A baby holding the "Petition of the Unborn Babes", 18th century illustration.

After the spread of Christianity, an issue emerged: whether it was permissible for a pregnant woman to be baptised before childbirth, due to uncertainty as to whether the fetus would be cobaptised with its mother. The Synod of Neo-Caesarea decided that the baptism of a pregnant woman in any stage of gestation did not include the fetus. [22] In the Middle Ages, fetal rights were closely associated with the concept of ensoulment. In some cases the fetus could also inherit or be in the order of succession. In the Byzantine Empire, a fetus was regarded as a natural person and could inherit alongside blood descendants and slaves. [23] Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos allowed soldiers to transfer their pronoiai to their unborn children. [24] The unborn royals were increasingly granted the right to succession. In 1284, King of Scotland Alexander III designated his future unborn children as heirs presumptive by the act of parliament to avoid potential squabbles among loyal descendants of his lineage. [25] The 1315 entail of Scottish king Robert the Bruce allowed the unborn collateral individuals to be in line for the throne beyond his brother Edward and daughter Marjorie Bruce. [25] After the death of Albert II of Germany in 1439, his then-unborn son Ladislaus the Posthumous inherited his father's sovereign rights. [26] In 1536, the British Parliament gave the unborn children of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour precedence in the line of royal succession. [27] The medieval distinction between the ensouled and the unensouled fetus was removed after Pope Pius IX decreed in 1854 that the ensoulment of Virgin Mary occurred at conception. [28]

In 1751, a pamphlet "The Petition of the Unborn Babes to the Censors of the Royal College of Physicians of London" by physician Frank Nicholls was published, advocating fetal right to life and protection. The pamphlet anticipated many of the arguments of the 21st century's pro-life movement. [29] In 1762, English jurist and judge William Blackstone wrote that an "infant in its mother's womb" could benefit from a legacy and receive an estate as if it were actually bom. [30] The fetus was thus considered a person for purposes of inheritance. [30] Similarly to the Roman law, the Napoleonic Code envisaged that if a woman becomes a widow, a male guardian should be appointed for her unborn child. [31]

In the 20th century and particularly after World War II fetal rights issues continued to develop. In 1948, the Declaration of Geneva was adopted which prior to amendments in 1983 and 2005, advised physicians to "maintain the utmost respect for human life from the time of its conception". [32] In 1967, American Bar Association Journal noted "the modern trend of legal decisions that grant every property and personal right to the unborn child, including the right to life itself, from conception on". [33] In 1975, while interpreting the right to life under the Basic Law of Germany, the Federal Constitutional Court opined that "life in the sense of historical existence of a human individual" exists "at least from the 14th day after conception (nidation, individuation)" and thus everyone's right to life under the Basic Law of Germany includes the unborn as human beings. [34] The 1980s witnessed the reappearance of fetal protection in the workplace, aimed at guarding fetal health in potentially hazardous working conditions. [35] In 1983, Ireland was one of the first countries in the world to constitutionalize a fetal right to life by passing the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution, later repealed in September 2018. [36]

Modern regulations

The only modern international treaty specifically tackling the fetal rights is the American Convention on Human Rights which envisages the fetal right to life from the moment of conception. [37] The convention was ratified by twenty five countries of the Americas (two countries later denounced the convention leading the current number of ratifiers to be twenty three [38] ) [lower-alpha 1] in 1973–1993. Mexico ratified the convention with the reservation that the expression "in general" concerning the fetal right to life does not constitute an obligation and that this matter falls within the domain of the states. [40] While the convention may be interpreted to permit domestic abortion laws in exceptional circumstances, it effectively declares the fetus a person. [40] However, only a minority of state ratifiers completely prohibit abortion without allowing for an exception when the pregnant woman's life is in danger (Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Nicaragua). [41]

Based on the 1959 Declaration of the Rights of the Child, preambular paragraph 9 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) states that "the child... needs... appropriate legal protection before as well as after birth", but due to ambiguity the legal protection of the fetus conflicts with the rights of a pregnant girl under the same Convention. [42] Such conflict is sometimes called maternal-fetal conflict. [43] Under CRC, the rights of a pregnant girl are interpreted as superseding those of her fetus. [42] The states retain the power to decide for themselves what prenatal legal protection they would adopt under CRC. [44] A proposal to grant fetus the right to life from conception was put forward by Belgium, Brazil, El Salvador, Mexico and Morocco during drafting of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), but it was rejected in favor of less stringent wording. [45] At the same time, ICCPR prohibits the execution of pregnant women. [46]

The World Medical Association Declaration on Therapeutic Abortion notes that "circumstances bringing the interests of a mother into conflict with the interests of her unborn child create a dilemma and raise the question as to whether or not the pregnancy should be deliberately terminated". [47] The Dublin Declaration on Maternal Healthcare, signed in 2012, prioritizes fetal right to life by noting that "there is a fundamental difference between abortion, and necessary medical treatments that are carried out to save the life of the mother, even if such treatment results in the loss of life of her unborn child". [48] Several organizations, such as World Health Organization (WHO) and Human Rights Watch prioritize women's reproductive rights over fetal rights. [49]

Under European law, a fetus is generally regarded as an in utero part of the mother and thus its rights are held by the mother. [50] The European Court of Human Rights opined that the right to life does not extend to fetuses under Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). [50] In H. v. Norway , the European Commission did not exclude that "in certain circumstances" the fetus may enjoy "a certain protection under Article 2, first sentence". [51] Two European Union member states (Hungary and Slovakia) grant the fetus the constitutional right to life. The Constitution of Norway grants the unborn royal children the right of succession to the throne. [52] In English common law, fetus is granted inheritance rights under the born alive rule. [50]

Islamic law grants the fetus the right to life particularly after ensoulment, which according to various Islamic jurists happens after 40–42 days or four months after conception [53] (some Shiite jurists believe the ensoulment occurs after 11 to 14 days, during the implantation of the fertilized egg in the uterine wall). [54] Both the Sunni and Shiite jurists accord the fetus inheritance rights under two conditions: if a man dies and a pregnant wife survives him, the fetal right to inherit is secure and the inheritance cannot be disposed of before the fetus' share is set aside. [54] Under the second condition, if a woman aborts the fetus at any stage and ignores any vital signs, the fetus is entitled to the inheritance of any legitimate legator who dies after its conception. [54]

The legal debate on fetal rights sometimes invokes the notion of fetal viability. [55] Its primary determinant is fetal lung capacity which typically develops at twenty-three to twenty-four weeks. [55] The twenty-three weeks is usually regarded as the lower bound of fetal viability because technology has been unable to surpass the limit set by lung development. [55] It was nonetheless stated that technology has made it possible to regard the fetus as a patient independent of the mother. [2] In Winnipeg Child and Family Services v. G. , the judges argued that "technologies like real-time ultrasound, fetal heart monitors and foetoscopy can clearly show us that the fetus is alive" and thus the born alive rule is "outdated and indefensible". [56]

The creation of human embryos for all research purposes is prohibited by the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being with regard to the Application of Biology and Medicine. However, similarly to the abortion debate, in the normative debate on embryo research two views can be distinguished: a "fetalist" view focusing on the moral value of the embryo, and a "feminist" view advocating the interests of women, particularly candidate oocyte donors. [57]

Prenatal personhood

In most jurisdictions, children in the prenatal stage are not considered subjects of law, or bearers of subjective rights. According to Aude Bertrand-Mirkovic, children in the prenatal stage are human persons but do not need legal personhood, as their rights can be protected by objective law. [58] In civil law, legislature often resort to infans conceptus rule, which is rooted in Roman law and means that the pre-born child is treated as born whenever it is considered in their interest. [59] Enforcement of this rule is subjected to a condition of live (and sometimes viable) birth. [60] In Common law, there exists the Born alive rule, — the principle applied in criminal matters which says that ‘a person cannot be held responsible for injuries inflicted on a foetus in utero unless and until it is born alive’. [61]

In some countries, such as the Republic of El Salvador, [62] the Italian Republic, [63] and the Republic of Peru, [64] the child in the prenatal stage is endowed with the status of a subject of law. Recognition of a child in the prenatal stage as a subject of law in practice does not imply the prohibition of abortion [65] and does generally imply the emergence of subjective non-property rights. In contrast, most subjective property rights may arise before birth but can be exercised already after birth.

According to Oleksandra Steshenko, prenatal personhood should be seen as legal personhood of a particular type, as its scope and content differ from the personhood of born people: [66] a) prenatal personhood always lacks the capacity to act; [67] b) it does not necessarily require the civil registration of prenatal existence; [68] c) the beginning of prenatal existence can be determined, when necessary, using legal presumptions; [69] d) every prenatal right should be weighed against the rights of a pregnant mother and, where relevant, against rights of a father; [70] e) as the duration of prenatal existence increases, the child gradually acquires a broader range of rights with increasing scope. [71]

Fetal (prenatal) rights by country

CountryConstitutional protection of fetal rightsRecognition of personhood
Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada NoNo
223. When child becomes human being [72]
A child becomes a human being within the meaning of this Act when it has completely proceeded, in a living state, from the body of its mother, whether or not:
(a) it has breathed;
(b) it has an independent circulation; or
(c) the navel string is severed.
Flag of Chile.svg  Chile Yes
Article 19 [73]
The Constitution guarantees all persons:

1.The right to life and to the physical and mental integrity of the person.

The law protects the life of the unborn.
Yes
Flag of the Dominican Republic.svg  Dominican Republic Yes
Article 37 [74]
The right to life is inviolable from conception until death. The death penalty may not be established, pronounced, nor applied in any case.		Yes
Flag of Ecuador.svg  Ecuador Yes
Article 45 [75]
Children and adolescents shall enjoy the rights that are common to all human beings, in addition to those that are specific to their age. The State shall recognize and guarantee life, including care and protection from the time of conception.		Yes
Flag of El Salvador.svg  El Salvador Yes
Article 1 [76]
El Salvador recognizes the human person as the origin and the end of the activity of the State, which is organized to attain justice, judicial security, and the common good.
In that same manner, it recognizes as a human person every human being since the moment of conception.		Yes
Flag of Guatemala.svg  Guatemala Yes
Article 3 [77]
The State guarantees and protects the human life from its conception, as well as the integrity and security of the person.		Yes
Flag of Hungary.svg  Hungary Yes
Article 2 [78]
Human dignity shall be inviolable. Every human being shall have the right to life and human dignity; the life of the foetus shall be protected from the moment of conception.		Yes
Flag of Honduras.svg  Honduras Yes
Article 67 [79]
The unborn shall be considered as born for all rights accorded within the limits established by law.		Yes
Flag of Madagascar.svg  Madagascar Yes
Article 19 [80]
The State recognizes and organizes for all individuals the right to the protection of health from their conception through the organization of free public health care, which gratuitousness results from the capacity of the national solidarity.		Yes
Flag of Peru.svg  Peru Yes
Article 2. [81]
To life, his identity, his moral, psychical, and physical integrity, and his free development and well-being. The unborn child is a rights-bearing subject in all cases that benefit him.		Yes
Flag of Brazil.svg  Brazil NoYes
Article 2. [82]
The civil personality of the person starts in the birth with the life, but the law safeguard, since the conception, the rights of the unborn.
Flag of the Philippines.svg  Philippines Yes
Section 12 [83]
The State recognizes the sanctity of family life and shall protect and strengthen the family as a basic autonomous social institution. It shall equally protect the life of the mother and the life of the unborn from conception.		Yes
Flag of Slovakia.svg  Slovakia Yes
Article 15 [84]
1. Everyone has the right to life. Human life is worthy of protection already before birth.		Yes
Flag of the Solomon Islands.svg  Solomon Islands NoYes [85]
  1. ↑ Argentina, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago (denounced), Uruguay and Venezuela (denounced). [39]
United States President George W. Bush signs the Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004 Bush signing Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004.jpg
United States President George W. Bush signs the Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004

The Eighth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland gave "the unborn" a right to life equal to that of "the mother". [86] In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled that the fetus' only inherent constitutionally protected right is the right to be born, overturning a High Court ruling that a fetus additionally possessed the children's rights guaranteed by Article 42A of the Constitution. [87] On 25 May 2018, a referendum was passed [88] which amended the Constitution by the substitution of the former provision recognising the right to life of the unborn, with one permitting the Oireachtas, the Irish Parliament, to legislate for the termination of pregnancies. [89] This amendment took effect when it was signed into law by the President of Ireland on 18 September 2018, and abortion was governed by the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013 until it was replaced and repealed by the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018, which took effect on 1 January 2019.

In the United States, as of 2014, thirty-eight states provide certain level of criminal protection for the unborn, and twenty-three of these states have laws that protect the fetus from conception until birth. [90] All US states–by statute, court rule or case law–permit a guardian ad litem to represent the interests of the unborn. [91] In 1999, the Unborn Victims of Violence Act was introduced into United States Congress which defines violent assault committed against pregnant women as being a crime against two victims: the woman and the fetus she carries. [92] This law was passed in 2004 after the murder of Laci Peterson and the fetus she was carrying. In 2002, U.S. President George W. Bush announced a plan to ensure health care coverage for fetuses under the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). [93]

The civil codes of several countries, such as China (including Hong Kong and Macau) [94] and Russia, as well as some US states, [91] grant fetus inheritance rights, usually under the born alive rule. In the civil code of Iran, fetus can inherit in case of abortion that took place due to a crime, as long as the fetus was alive even for a second after birth.[ citation needed ] Under the civil code of Japan, for the purposes of inheritance the fetus is deemed to have already been born. [95] The civil codes of the Philippines and Spain envisage that donations to the unborn children can be made and accepted by "persons who would legally represent them if they were already born". [96] [97] The same is allowed by the Malikis. [98]

Alongside Norway, the Constitution of Bhutan grants the unborn royal children the right to succession, but only if there is no male heir. [99]

Behavioral intervention

Various initiatives, prompted by concern for the ill effects which might be posed to the health or development of a fetus, seek to restrict or discourage women from engaging in certain behaviors while pregnant. Also, in some countries, laws have been passed to restrict the practice of abortion based upon the gender of the fetus.

See also

Notes

    Related Research Articles

    Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States generally protected a right to have an abortion. The decision struck down many abortion laws, and caused an ongoing abortion debate in the United States about whether, or to what extent, abortion should be legal, who should decide the legality of abortion, and what the role of moral and religious views in the political sphere should be. The decision also shaped debate concerning which methods the Supreme Court should use in constitutional adjudication. The Supreme Court overruled Roe in 2022, ending the constitutional right to abortion.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Abortion in the United Kingdom</span>

    Abortion in the United Kingdom is de facto available under the terms of the Abortion Act 1967 in Great Britain and the Abortion (No.2) Regulations 2020 in Northern Ireland. The procurement of an abortion remains a criminal offence in Great Britain under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, although the Abortion Act provides a legal defence for both the pregnant woman and her doctor in certain cases. Although a number of abortions did take place before the 1967 Act, there have been around 10 million abortions in the United Kingdom. Around 200,000 abortions are carried out in England and Wales each year and just under 14,000 in Scotland; the most common reason cited under the ICD-10 classification system for around 98% of all abortions is "risk to woman's mental health."

    The abortion debate is a longstanding and contentious discourse that touches on the moral, legal, medical, and religious aspects of induced abortion. In English-speaking countries, the debate most visibly polarizes around adherents of the self-described "pro-choice" and "pro-life" movements. Pro-choice supporters uphold that individuals have the right to make their own decisions about their reproductive health, and that they should have the option to end a pregnancy if they choose to do so, taking into account various factors such as the stage of fetal development, the health of the woman, and the circumstances of the conception. Pro-life advocates, on the other hand, maintain that a fetus is a human being with inherent rights that cannot be overridden by the woman's choice or circumstances, and that abortion is morally wrong in most or all cases. Both terms are considered loaded words in mainstream media, where terms such as "abortion rights" or "anti-abortion" are generally preferred.

    Late termination of pregnancy, also referred to politically as third trimester abortion, describes the termination of pregnancy by inducing labor during a late stage of gestation. In this context, late is not precisely defined, and different medical publications use varying gestational age thresholds. As of 2015 in the United States, more than 90% of abortions occur before the 13th week, 1.3% of abortions in the United States took place after the 21st week, and less than 1% occur after 24 weeks.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Unborn Victims of Violence Act</span> Law that recognizes an embryo or fetus as a legal victim

    The Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004 is a United States law that recognizes an embryo or fetus in utero as a legal victim, if they are injured or killed during the commission of any of over 60 listed federal crimes of violence. The law defines "child in utero" as "a member of the species Homo sapiens, at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb."

    Abortion in Germany is illegal, but nonpunishable during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy upon condition of mandatory counseling. The same goes later in pregnancy in cases that the pregnancy poses an important danger to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman. In the case that the abortion is because of a rape, counseling is not mandatory. The woman needs to receive counseling, called Schwangerschaftskonfliktberatung, at least three days prior to the abortion and must take place at a state-approved centre, which afterwards gives the applicant a Beratungsschein.

    Prenatal perception is the study of the extent of somatosensory and other types of perception during pregnancy. In practical terms, this means the study of fetuses; none of the accepted indicators of perception are present in embryos. Studies in the field inform the abortion debate, along with certain related pieces of legislation in countries affected by that debate. As of 2022, there is no scientific consensus on whether a fetus can feel pain.

    The born alive rule is a common law legal principle that holds that various criminal laws, such as homicide and assault, apply only to a child that is "born alive". U.S. courts have overturned this rule, citing recent advances in science and medicine, and in several states feticide statutes have been explicitly framed or amended to include fetuses in utero. Abortion in Canada is still governed by the born alive rule, as courts continue to hold to its foundational principles. In 1996, the Law Lords confirmed that the rule applied in English law but that alternative charges existed in lieu, such as a charge of unlawful or negligent manslaughter instead of murder.

    The genetics and abortion issue is an extension of the abortion debate and the disability rights movement. Since the advent of forms of prenatal diagnosis, such as amniocentesis and ultrasound, it has become possible to detect the presence of congenital disorders in the fetus before birth. Specifically, disability-selective abortion is the abortion of fetuses that are found to have non-fatal mental or physical defects detected through prenatal testing. Many prenatal tests are now considered routine, such as testing for Down syndrome. Women who are discovered to be carrying fetuses with disabilities are often faced with the decision of whether to abort or to prepare to parent a child with disabilities.

    Abortion in Poland is illegal except in cases where the pregnancy is a result of a criminal act or when the woman's life or health is in danger. The last change in the Act on Pregnancy Planning of the Republic of Poland took place on 27 January 2021, when publication of the judgment of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal in the Dziennik Ustaw RP took place.

    A fetus or foetus is the unborn mammalian offspring that develops from an embryo. Following the embryonic stage, the fetal stage of development takes place. Prenatal development is a continuum, with no clear defining feature distinguishing an embryo from a fetus. However, in general a fetus is characterized by the presence of all the major body organs, though they will not yet be fully developed and functional, and some may not yet be situated in their final anatomical location.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Beginning of human personhood</span> Opinion as to the time when human personhood begins

    The beginning of human personhood is the moment when a human is first recognized as a person. There are differences of opinion about the precise time when human personhood begins and the nature of that status. The issue arises in a number of fields, including science, religion, philosophy, and law, and is most acute in debates about abortion, stem cell research, reproductive rights, and fetal rights.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Abortion in Colombia</span>

    Abortion in Colombia is freely available on request up to the 24th week of pregnancy, due to a ruling by the Constitutional Court on February 21, 2022. Later in pregnancy, it is only allowed in cases of risk of death to the pregnant woman, fetal malformation, or rape, according to a Constitutional Court ruling in 2006.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Abortion law in the United States by state</span>

    The legality of abortion in the United States and the various restrictions imposed on the procedure vary significantly, depending on the laws of each state or other jurisdiction, although there is no uniform federal law. Some states prohibit abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with few exceptions; others permit it up to a certain point in a woman's pregnancy, while some allow abortion throughout a woman's pregnancy. In states where abortion is legal, several classes of restrictions on the procedure may exist, such as parental consent or notification laws, requirements that patients be shown an ultrasound before obtaining an abortion, mandatory waiting periods, and counseling requirements.

    Foeticide, or feticide, is the act of killing a fetus, or causing a miscarriage. Definitions differ between legal and medical applications, whereas in law, feticide frequently refers to a criminal offense, in medicine the term generally refers to a part of an abortion procedure in which a provider intentionally induces fetal demise to avoid the chance of an unintended live birth, or as a standalone procedure in the case of selective reduction.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Born alive laws in the United States</span> Fetal rights laws in US

    Born alive laws in the United States are fetal rights laws that extend various criminal laws, such as homicide and assault, to cover unlawful death or other harm done to a fetus in utero or to an infant that has been delivered. The basis for such laws stems from advances in medical science and social perception, which allow a fetus to be seen and medically treated as an individual in the womb and perceived socially as a person, for some or all of the pregnancy.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Pregnancy options counseling in the United States</span>

    Pregnancy options counseling is a form of counseling aimed to counsel women on decision-making for a troubling or unintended pregnancy.

    Paper abortion, also known as a financial abortion, male abortion or a statutory abortion, is the proposed ability of the biological father, before the birth of the child, to opt out of any rights, privileges, and responsibilities toward the child, including financial support. By this means, before a child is born, a man would be able to absolve himself of both the privileges and demands of fatherhood.

    A termination for medical reasons (TFMR) is an induced abortion motivated by medical indications involving the fetus or mother. In some countries, health risks are the only basis for obtaining a legal abortion. Prenatal screening can allow early diagnosis, and abortion if desired or necessary. Some medical organizations advocate the offer of diagnostic testing by chorionic villi sampling, and amniocentesis to all pregnant women, as a matter of course.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Abortion in Europe</span> Comparative overview of abortion law and practice

    Abortion in Europe varies considerably between countries and territories due to differing national laws and policies on its legality, availability of the procedure, and alternative forms of support for pregnant women and their families.

    References

    1. ↑ Steshenko, Oleksandra (2024). Prenatal Rights. p. 209. ISBN   9798321386026 . Retrieved 13 July 2024.
    2. 1 2 Marsh, FH (1997). "Abortion and the law: the Supreme Court, privacy, and abortion". Advances in Bioethics. 2: 107–23. PMID   12348324.
    3. ↑ Benshoof, J (22 January 1998). "Sex, lies, and stereotypes". Reproductive Freedom News. 7 (1): 2–3. PMID   12293725.
    4. ↑ Erin N. Linder (2005). "Punishing prenatal alcohol abuse: the problems inherent in utilizing civil commitment to address addiction" (PDF). University of Illinois Law Review. Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 February 2016. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
    5. ↑ Copelon, Rhonda; Zampas, Christina; Brusie, Elizabeth; deVore, Jacqueline (January 2005). "Human Rights Begin at Birth: International Law and the Claim of Fetal Rights". Reproductive Health Matters. 13 (26): 120–129. doi:10.1016/S0968-8080(05)26218-3. PMID   16291493. S2CID   33649988. In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the foundation of human rights, the text and negotiating history of the "right to life" explicitly premises human rights on birth. Likewise, other international and regional human rights treaties, as drafted and/or subsequently interpreted, clearly reject claims that human rights should attach from conception or any time before birth. They also recognise that women's right to life and other human rights are at stake where restrictive abortion laws are in place.
    6. ↑ Boland, Reed; Katzive, Laura (September 2008). "Developments in Laws on Induced Abortion: 1998-2007". International Family Planning Perspectives. 34 (3): 110–120. doi: 10.1363/3411008 . PMID   18957353.
    7. ↑ "Legge 19 febbraio 2004, n 40 'Norme in materia di procreazione medicalmente assistita'". Parlamento Italiano. Retrieved 13 April 2024.
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    9. ↑ Riddle, John (1994). Contraception and Abortion from the Ancient World to the Renaissance. Harvard University Press. p. 8. ISBN   0-674-16876-3.
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    12. ↑ K. A. Kapparis (2002). Abortion in the Ancient World. Duckworth Academic. p. 188. ISBN   0-7156-3080-6.
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