Should the murder of a pregnant mother be handled with a double homicide charge to include the death of the unborn child?
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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M$2 Answers
If the fetus is old enough that it could survive a premature birth without technology, then it *definitely* is double-murder.
Where it gets gray is when the entity in the womb has crossed from embryo to fetus at 17 weeks, and what judges would probably settle on is knowledge in the part of the killer.
They would probably say that if the killer knew the woman was pregnant, then it's double-murder, but if he didn't, then it murder of the woman, and manslaughter of the fetus... which doesn't get him off the hook for the murder of the mother, because in murder, the count doesn't matter... it only takes one.
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M$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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M$
