NCJ Number
136625
Journal
Women and Criminal Justice Volume: 3 Issue: 2 Dated: special issue (1992) Pages: 5-33
Date Published
1992
Length
29 pages
Annotation
The potential of harm to fetuses as a result of potentially harmful behaviors and decisions of pregnant women has raised difficult questions regarding the use of legal sanctions imposed against the mother for the express purpose of protecting the fetus.
Abstract
Several court cases have resulted in interference with pregnant women including incarceration and the imposition of unwanted medical and surgical treatments. The authors argue that such sanctions, even when legal, are morally unacceptable because they violate important ethical values inherent in the American legal system including the publicity condition of the rule of law that requires that persons be able to predict when their behavior might lead to State-imposed punishment. Finally, such sanctions would make bad law because they would be counterproductive, actually contributing to the harm they are intended to prevent. The moral status of human fetuses, according to these authors, is based upon recognition of personhood at birth, when the protection of an infant's rights does not involve a violation of its mother's rights to self-direction and bodily integrity. 21 notes and 94 references