Word: fetuses
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...logic of their position might be some thing like this: If the fetus is not called a person, some "children" will be sent home with negligent parents who cannot be prosecuted as abusers. But if it is called a person, many more children will be born to negligent parents who are unfit to raise them and would have had abortions if they were allowed. "The greatest good for the greatest number" is the only principle that enables one to put a bold face on the situation...
...drugs may not be the only abused targeted by the courts. With the growing body of evidence about smoking's harmful effects on the fetus, the courts could easily rule that smoking during pregnancy is a form of child abuse. This would be especially unfair because, nicotine, though an extremely addictive drug, is nonetheless a legally acceptable and culturally encouraged stimulant. Nicotine addiction may have begun long before the woman over thought of pregnancy, and pregnancy is hardly a good time to quit and start going through withdrawal (stress also affects the fetus adversely...
Once such a precedent is set, women whose jobs involve contact with hazardous materials might be held back--or laid off--by their employers, who would be trying to clear themselves of liability if the woman to become pregnant and have a damaged fetus. Sound far-fetched? In fact, a major legal controversy arose last year over whether employers were being paternalistic and discriminatory by shunting women away from positions of responsibility which involve hazards to fertility...
...effect of "fetus-abuse" legislation would be to place an undue burden on the pregnant women. Justice David M. Borden, who wrote the decision in the Hartford case, said he rejected the fetus-abuse argument because it would have made judges look back throughout the whole period of pregnancy for possible "abuses" any time a child was born damaged, throwing a suspicion on the mother which would often be impossible either to prove or remove...
Because of these difficulties, "fetus abuse" is not a viable legal concept. But this doesn't mean that children born with a parent like the Hartford cocaine addict must be left at the mercy of their dysfunctional families forever. If a pregnant woman is observed shooting up in the delivery room (or some such egregious action), her name can surely be referred to social workers who will check in on the family after the child is born and see if the parents are still incompetent. Sadly, they will generally find enough grounds to remove the child anyway...