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Should the murder of a pregnant mother be handled with a double homicide charge to include the death of the unborn child?
The Fort Hood gunman, Hasan, shot and killed a pregnant fellow soldier and may now face charges for the death of her unborn child. But in certain states, homicide cases that involved the murder of a pregnant woman did not consider a charge for violence against unborn victims. For example, an 18-year old girl 21 weeks pregnant with a little boy was murdered in 2004 in KY and since the state did not have a law for violence against unborn victims in place, nothing could be done to charge the murderer (once he was caught) with the killing of the unborn baby boy. Should all states adopt such a law to protect unborn children (at least from a certain point of development on)?
Source:
http://www.nrlc.org/Unborn_victims/Remembertheirnames.html
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091113/ap_on_re_us/us_fort_hood_shooting;_ylt=AnwylIdrxmVk1LLk6QA_bpcuQE4F;_ylu=X3oDMTJvbGF0bmhyBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkxMTEzL3VzX2ZvcnRfaG9vZF9zaG9vdGluZwRjcG9zAzUEcG9zAzUEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yaWVzBHNsawNsYXd5ZXJhY2N1c2U-
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Source:
http://www.nrlc.org/Unborn_victims/Remembertheirnames.html
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091113/ap_on_re_us/us_fort_hood_shooting;_ylt=AnwylIdrxmVk1LLk6QA_bpcuQE4F;_ylu=X3oDMTJvbGF0bmhyBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkxMTEzL3VzX2ZvcnRfaG9vZF9zaG9vdGluZwRjcG9zAzUEcG9zAzUEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yaWVzBHNsawNsYXd5ZXJhY2N1c2U-
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November 13, 2009 10:27 PM
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If the embryo was less that 17 weeks old, then no, it would not be double-murder, else abortion would be murder too.
If the fetus is old enough that it could survive a premature birth without technology, then it *definitely* is double-murder.
Where it gets gray is when the entity in the womb has crossed from embryo to fetus at 17 weeks, and what judges would probably settle on is knowledge in the part of the killer.
They would probably say that if the killer knew the woman was pregnant, then it's double-murder, but if he didn't, then it murder of the woman, and manslaughter of the fetus... which doesn't get him off the hook for the murder of the mother, because in murder, the count doesn't matter... it only takes one.
If the fetus is old enough that it could survive a premature birth without technology, then it *definitely* is double-murder.
Where it gets gray is when the entity in the womb has crossed from embryo to fetus at 17 weeks, and what judges would probably settle on is knowledge in the part of the killer.
They would probably say that if the killer knew the woman was pregnant, then it's double-murder, but if he didn't, then it murder of the woman, and manslaughter of the fetus... which doesn't get him off the hook for the murder of the mother, because in murder, the count doesn't matter... it only takes one.
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November 14, 2009 05:21 AM
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This is an abortion question. You can be charged with murder of a non-person. If an unborn child is not a person, then it is not murder. If you believe an unborn child IS a person, then it would be murder.
As a parent who has heard the heart-beat of an unborn child and someone who went through the loss of miscarriage, I believe that babies are persons - both before they are born and after.
So, to the question, I believe that this is a double homicide because I believe a person ceased to exist that would have likely existed were this shooting not have taken place.
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As a parent who has heard the heart-beat of an unborn child and someone who went through the loss of miscarriage, I believe that babies are persons - both before they are born and after.
So, to the question, I believe that this is a double homicide because I believe a person ceased to exist that would have likely existed were this shooting not have taken place.
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