A judge in Pennsylvania recently ruled that a woman could be charged with murder for the death of a fetus of a romantic rival.
Corinne Wilcott was charged with murder after she attacked a pregnant woman at a graduation party in June 2002. The pregnant woman survived, but her 15-week old fetus died four days later due to the force of the attack.
According to the Associated Press, Pennsylvania is one of 27 states that allow prosecutions for fetal homicide. Wilcott had argued that under Pennsylvania law a fetus is not a person and, therefore, it is impossible to murder a fetus.
In rejecting Wilcott’s appeal, Judge John Trucilla offered the rather unsatisfying legal argument that the difference between Wilcott’s alleged killing of a fetus and an abortion was that in this case the mother did not have a choice.
But that sort of criteria seems to simply sidestep the issue. Certainly society may want to create a special sort of crime for the intentional killing of a fetus in violation of a pregnant woman’s wishes, but if a fetus is genuinely not a person then it is unclear how anyone can be charged with murder for killing a fetus (anymore than someone who committed arson and thereby killed a dog trapped in the fire would be charged with murder).
Source:
Judge rules down challenge to Pa. Fetal Homicide Law in Murder Case. Associated Press, January 25, 2003.