A French appeals court ruled in February that a driver who caused the death of a pregnant woman and the fetus she was carrying cannot be charged with two counts of manslaughter in the accident.
In October 2003, a van driven by Kevin Germon, 30, struck a car that Florinda Braganca, 34, was riding in. Braganca, who was 22 weeks pregnant, was killed instantly.
Germon was sentenced to one year in jail for his role in the accident, but prosecutors sought to charge him in the death of the 22-week-old fetus as well. They argued that the law should recognize that the fetus was “a human being from the moment of conception.”
But the appeals court upheld a lower court ruling that the fetus could not be considered a crime victim, barring prosecution of Germon on a possible second manslaughter charge.
The oddest thing about this case is the relatively short sentence Germon received for killing Braganca, especially given that drug tests found cannabis in his system at the time of the accident.
Sources:
French unborn death ‘not a crime’. The BBC, February 17, 2005.
French court rejects ‘homicide’ of unborn foetus. Agence France Presse, February 17, 2005.