DAS Blog

I have a question, asked in at least some sincerity:

How do people who feel abortion is murder feel about miscarriage?

After all, to believe abortion is murder, one must view fetuses, or possibly even embryos, as being signatories to the social contract, so to speak, i.e. they are "human". So what happens when a woman's body rejects a fetus or embryo -- has she killed, even inadvertently, a human? If a driver does not have the capacity, due to illness or age, to drive without placing others at risk, likely he will not be allowed to drive, and if he does drive and kills someone, he will be liable, perhaps only in civil court but perhaps criminally, for the death he has caused. If a woman miscarries a few times and thus demonstrates she may not have the capacity to carry a fetus to term, if she miscarries again, could she be criminally liable for that miscarriage? After all, just like the driver who caused a death by driving when he lacked the capacity to do so safely, the woman has caused a death by getting pregnant when she lacked the capacity to do so without harm to the fetus developing inside her.

I reckon some might consider a miscarriage an act of God ... akin to a tree limb falling on someone and killing them. But if the tree were on my property and my negligence in caring for the tree created a situation in which any reasonable person would realize the tree limb might fall and kill somebody, I would very well be sued for this occurance. Depending on how inevitable the situation was, I might even be prosecuted for criminal negligence. Certainly, if I have 'dominion' over the tree in my property and an obligation, both legally and morally, to keep them properly trimmed,a woman would have certain obligations to her fetus, right?

So if you believe abortion is murder, when does a woman who miscarries become liable for wrongful death? For criminally negligent homocide? For manslaughter? For depraved indifference murder?

Inquiring minds would like to know.