Warning: reproductive politics
Mar. 30th, 2004 07:57 amFit of rage that claimed an unborn baby's life
The crucial part of the report is here:
"In a Crown appeal last December, Chief Justice James Spigelman ruled that the close physical bond between mother and child meant that for offences such as in this case, the foetus should be regarded as part of the mother, finding against Judge Robyn Tupman's earlier decision.
Judge Tupman made a similar finding when she jailed a Sydney man for six years after an act of road rage that ended in the death of an unborn child because the law did not classify a child as human until it had taken a breath." [my emphasis]
This acknowledges the horrible pain of losing a wanted foetus, without attacking women's reproductive freedom - in fact, it enhances our freedom precisely by recognising the injury done to the mother. I am impressed.