Conn. Supreme Court: Fetus Is Body Part
Comment by Dr. Dianne N. Irving, M.A., Ph.D.

comments Irving
May 8, 2003
Reproduced with Permission

[Comment: One of the most powerful sources of massive confusion on the truth about the scientific facts of the early human embryo has been the courts and the law, especially since the 1993 Roe vs Wade decision. Once false science is incorporated into a law or regulation it ceases to be science anymore and becomes instead "stare decisis" -- or, legal precedent. The courts then have no legal duty to go back and correct the false science, hence it continues to be applied and perpetuated as "legal precedent" ad naseum. Scientifically there is no question whatsoever that the immediate product of fertilization (conception) is a new, genetically unique living human being -- flatly contradicting the ruling of this court that it is just a "body part" of the mother. Even aside from the obvious legal implications for abortion, human embryo research, cloning, etc., such irresponsible legal decisions pave the way for the commodification of the early human embryo as simply a "product" to be legally bought and sold on the free (or black) market as long as the woman -- or the IVF research lab -- gives "informed consent". (Indeed, such arguments have long been fostered by such bioethicists as Tristram Engelhardt, Lee Silver, etc.) FYI I have included after this article just a portion of the human embryology that so documents the accurate and true objective scientific facts in concert with the International Nomina Embryologica nomenclature, and have attached my article (in "rich text format") on "when a human being begins". If the supposedly sacrosanct Rule of Law is so unreliable and continues to foster such false science as has this Conn. court, then the courts will inevitably face the same lack of confidence and loss of credibility by the public as have recently the fields of scientific research and medicine in general because of this same dubious practice. -- DNI]


http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-2650348,00.html
Source: Guardian Unlimited
May 8, 2003

Conn. Supreme Court: Fetus Is Body Part

By Matt Apuzzo
.c The Associated Press

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Angering both sides of the abortion debate, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a fetus is a body part, akin to teeth, skin and hair that are eventually shed.

The ruling unanimously upheld the conviction of a man who tried to induce a miscarriage by slipping his girlfriend labor-inducing drugs. Edwin Sandoval argued he could not be charged with attempting to commit aggravated assault because the fetus was the target, not the mother.

Though the court held that the 5-week-old fetus was part of the woman's body, Chief Justice William J. Sullivan issued a separate concurring opinion saying a fetus might have "its own independent existence."

"In other words, the fetus may both be a part of its mother as well as its own individual being," Sullivan wrote.

Anti-abortion groups applauded the court's protection of the fetus, but criticized the identification of a fetus as a body part.

"It could have had a different blood type, and certainly it had different DNA," said Bill O'Brien, vice president of the Connecticut Right to Life Corp.

Sullivan's opinion, which declared that a fetus may be entitled to legal protection, drew criticism from abortion rights groups.

"Any time I hear about giving rights to fetuses, I get concerned," said Elaine Werner, executive director of the Connecticut chapter of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League. "That's the slippery slope to eroding Roe vs. Wade."

Sandoval was sentenced in 2001 to 12 years in prison for using ulcer medication in an attempt to induce a miscarriage. The woman later gave birth to a healthy son.

Gov. John G. Rowland is expected to sign a bill increasing the penalties for someone convicted of assaulting a pregnant woman and causing her to lose the fetus. The assault would be punishable by 10 to 25 years in prison.

Defense attorney Paula Waite said if the fetus is its own life form, the state's abortion laws are in question. If the fetus is a body part, laws increasing the penalty for assaulting a pregnant woman could be jeopardized.

Another defense attorney promised to appeal.

05/07/03 20:12 EDT


FERTILIZATION (SEXUAL REPRODUCTION (in vivo and/or in vitro) NORMALLY TAKES PLACE IN THE FALLOPIAN TUBE (NOT IN THE UTERUS); FERTILIZATION IS NORMALLY THE BEGINNING OF THE EXISTENCE OF: THE HUMAN BEING, THE HUMAN EMBRYO, THE HUMAN ORGANISM, THE GENETIC SEX OF THE EMBRYO, NORMAL PREGNANCY, AND THE EMBRYONIC PERIOD:


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