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Date: | Tue, 4 Jul 2006 22:40:45 -0400 |
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A Q is posed: when is the mother criminally liable for injuries to her
fetus, when mom has been ingesting illegal substances?
This varies from state-to-state in the USA, and would be a hot potato in
whatever jurisdiction you are in. Sometimes there will be laws defining
what a "person" or "life" is for purposes of prosecution; sometimes there is
only case law (meaning a judge's decision, made case-by-case).
Then, you have several layers of prosecutorial discretion that would affect
the trial itself, starting with the police officer (who decides whom to
arrest); the charging or indicting authority (usually the district or county
attorney, who decides which laws to claim were broken); the investigators
and trials attorneys (who may decide they don't have the necessary proofs to
make the charges stick); the trial judge (who may decide the prosecutors
don't have the necessary proofs).
And we haven't even touched the job of the defense attorneys, who would
argue that all of the charges are invalid, on whatever procedural or
substantive grounds are available.
In short: no easy answers. At all!
Liz Brooks, JD, IBCLC
Wyndmoor, PA, USA
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