Fetal Homicide

Fetal Homicide
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Fetal Homicide
The law defines fetal homicide or feticide as willingly killing a fetus, and the act is considered a crime in almost all countries in the world. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (2018), as of May 2018, 38 states had passed fetal homicide laws, 29 among them applying the laws in the early stages of pregnancy. This paper discusses standards used to determine whether a fetus is a person, why it is essential to classify killing a fetus differently, and the conflict between fetal homicide and abortion rights.
During birth, it is essential to find the state in which a child has been born, whether it was alive or dead. These findings dictate the different legal actions taken in case a fetus dies. Most activists against abortion have proposed legislation that separates the killing of a fetus from other murder crimes. According to Klasing (1995), the United States did not apply the fetal homicide laws in case the child was born alive and died soon after. The same approach is replicated in the current state laws stating that after a child is born alive as a person, an event of their death afterward will not be regarded as a fetal homicide. However, the viability law dictates that if medics confirm that the fetus would have survived, then fetal homicide laws apply.
The conception of a fetus marks the start of life for it according to most Christian religious doctrines; however, the law recogni…