Why is it that when a pregnant woman is killed, the killer is charged with 2 counts of murder, however...?

Question

when a woman has an abortion, it is okay by law??

Answer 1

Your question illustrates the hypocrisy necessary within our legal system that can on one hand declare the fetus "a human life" but if the mother herself terminates that human life then the fetus is not "a human life"!

Somehow, if the killer is the pregnant woman, she is given a legal license to kill. Now, with our declining numbers, a loss soon to accelerate due to the baby boomers entering old age, it seems almost culturally suicidal that we do not secure and protect every new human life, even if it means intervening with adoption services, foster parents and economic aid to adoptive families.

It seems to me that a woman could far more easily give the child up than to end its life without mercy. May God have mercy on their souls.

Answer 2

They're not.

A person becomes a person in the eyes of the law, when the baby is born alive. Technically, the law tends to use a breath as the proof of "born alive". one breath is all it takes. In some cases, it just requires the coroner's professional opinion that the autopsy shows baby most likely did breath for a while.

If someone does something that causes the death of a baby that was born alive, they are just as liable whether the damage was done before or after birth.

This is why abortion after the 5th month is not allowed. The fetus may be capable of being born alive, even if it won't survive for long - at that point, if the baby manages to breath before it die, the doctor could be charged. Ther were in fact some cases about 10 years ago, over late-term abortions where some participants claimed the fetus was still alive, and others where the claim was that the doctor held the baby inside the womb until it smothered.

Also, congress recently passed a law that killing a fetus during an attack on the mother, even if the fetus is not a person was not a person, was a crime. But it's a different crime, not murder.

In the bible (old testament), it says if you hurt a woman to kill the fetus, which is then born dead, it is not a murder.

Answer 3

Nope, some of the above are wrong, if you're wanting an answer from the LEGAL point of view.

Up to about 24 weeks gestation (different in some jurisdictions), a foetus is not considered viable and therefore not considered a person by law. Up to that point, a doctor performing an abortion is not doing anything contrary to law. If a doctor was to perform an abortion on an older foetus, however, he would be committing a crime. That's why most doctors make absolutely sure of the age of the unborn child before performing an abortion.

Now, if a pregnant woman is killed, and her unborn child is older than 24 weeks from conception (or whatever is considered viable in your jurisdiction), the child is a person by law, and therefore the perpetrator of a murder or manslaughter on the woman is also charged with the crime against the child.

Hope this helps.

Answer 4

You are describing a unique situation with no parallel.

When a killer kills a mother and child it counts as two murders -yes.

By definition if a killer kills only a child in utero we consider it a murder and it must out of necessity be an assault on the mother.

If a killer kills a mother and the child lives, it is considered a murder, and it is likely an assault on the child.

If a mother kills her own baby, it creates a unique situation. To prevent such an attack we would have to prevent the mother from having control over her own body. And not just in the way we would incarcerate a plotting murderer. We would have to make sure she isn't near any high places and eats properly. With the normal would be murderer, by killing himself he cannot commit the act of murdering another. Only a pregnant woman can do that. Part of the reason we don't charge women who abort with the murder of their own children is the consequence that doing otherwise would create a situation where one of the most fundamental rights of any human being would be extinguished.

Camus once said the only true philosophical question is whether or not to commit suicide.

Answer 5

The law counts all murders as murders - so that makes his action two counts of murder. The law only gives woman the right to abort a fetus up to six months along and does not take up whether or not it is a human or not, only that she has the legal right to do it. Murderers cannot invoke this law, however. Hopefully they don't have the death penalty and that piece of human excrement rots in prison bent over a shower room trash can getting his just deserts from men with Aids, for life.

Answer 6

“If men harm a woman with child so that here fruit depart her…they should pay a fine as determined by a judge.”
Exodus 21:22 KJV (This is the original King james version. I know some of the New-Age versions have been changed)
This seems to say abortion is a minor sin in even God's eyes.

Answer 7

Because an embryo is not a person, and it is part of the woman's body, it is not a separate person with wishes and desires that is entitled to legal protection.

Answer 8

Because the choice to terminate a pregnancy rests solely with the woman carrying the child, and nobody else.

Answer 9

The issue is how old the fetus is. I believe over 7months is considered viable.

Answer 10

Gee Golden I don't think the unborn child wants to be snuffed out.
Good question, I have wondered this myself.

But face it they did murder two viable humans.

I think sicko lawyers should see this and say hey let me prove she was going to have an abortion anyway and cut it down to one murder...YA