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GEN: Fetus Is A PersonFrom: art fougner, md (evsono@pipeline.com)Mon May 14 07:55:48 2001
This from ReutersHealth - Arkansas Supreme Court rules that a fetus is a person Last Updated: 2001-05-11 17:29:44 EDT (Reuters Health) By Todd Zwillich WASHINGTON (Reuters Health) - Just weeks after the House of Representatives voted to recognize fetuses as people under the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, the Arkansas Supreme Court has ruled that a fetus who died along with its mother during a botched delivery in 1995 qualifies as "a person" under that state's wrongful death law. Abortion rights activists criticized the ruling, saying it might clear the path to eventually overturn the 1974 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. In a 4-3 vote, the high court overturned a lower court ruling that Evangeline Aka's unborn son was not recognized as a person by the state for the purposes of a wrongful death suit. Aka and her full-term, unborn son both died in 1995 after she was admitted to a hospital and doctors improperly induced labor and failed to perform a cesarean section, according to court documents filed by Aka's husband. The Supreme Court reversed the lower court decision mainly because of a 1999 Arkansas law that recognizes a fetus of more than 12 weeks' gestational age as "a person." The law exempts cases of legal abortion. Before the 1999 law was passed, there was confusion because of a 1988 amendment to the Arkansas Constitution stating that that state's policy was "to protect the life of every unborn child from conception to birth." The United States Supreme Court had struck that amendment down in 1996, ruling it unconstitutional because it would illegally deny public funds for most abortions. "If there had been any doubt concerning the State's public policy on this subject, it is now laid to rest," wrote Arkansas Chief Justice W.H. "Dub" Arnold in the majority opinion. Because of the 1999 law, "we are no longer constrained by the common-law definition of a person," Arnold wrote. In a dissenting opinion, Justice Robert L. Brown said that the 1999 law should not apply retroactively in this case because of a 2001 law, yet to be enacted, that specifically recognizes fetuses as people in wrongful death suits. "The majority's handling of this critically important social, cultural, and moral issue is muddled," Brown wrote. The decision comes 2 weeks after the Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed a bill making it a federal crime to harm a fetus while committing another federal crime against a pregnant woman. Supporters maintained that the law was needed to ensure punishment for criminals who harm fetuses as well as for those who harm pregnant women. The Arkansas Supreme Court case and the House vote both "set a precedent that can be used to overturn a woman's right to choose," Vicki Saporta, executive director of the National Abortion Federation, told Reuters Health. The bill has yet to reach the Senate, which defeated a similar measure in 1999. Saporta noted that other states have cases similar to the Aka case pending in their courts, and several states are considering laws recognizing fetuses as persons under the law. "Ultimately the [US] Supreme Court may be the one that decides this question," she said. -Westport Newsroom 203 319 2700
-- art fougner, md
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