FETAL RIGHTS
The rights of any unborn human fetus, which is
generally a developing human from roughly eight
weeks after conception to birth.
Like other categories such as CIVIL RIGHTS
and HUMAN RIGHTS, fetal rights embraces a
complex variety of topics and issues involving a
number of areas of the law, including criminal,
employment, HEALTH CARE, and FAMILY LAW.
Historically, under both English COMMON
LAW and U.S. law, the fetus has not been recog-
nized as a person with full rights. Instead, legal
rights have centered on the mother, with the fetus
treated as a part of her. Nevertheless, U.S. law has
in certain instances granted the fetus limited
rights, particularly as medical science has made it
increasingly possible to directly view, monitor,
diagnose, and treat the fetus as a patient.
The term fetal rights came into wide usage
following the landmark 1973 ABORTION case
ROE V.WADE, 410 U.S. 113, 93 S. Ct. 705, 35 L. Ed.
2d 147. In that case, the Supreme Court ruled
that a woman has a constitutionally guaranteed
unqualified right to abortion in the first
trimester of her pregnancy. She also has a right to
terminate a pregnancy in the second trimester,
although the state may limit that right when the
procedure poses a health risk to the mother that
is greater than the risk of carrying the fetus to
term. In making its decision, the Court ruled that
a fetus is not a person under the terms of the
FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT to the U.S. Constitu-
tion. However, the Court also maintained that
the state has an interest in protecting the life of a
fetus after viability—that is, after the point at
which the fetus is capable of living outside the
womb. As a result, states were permitted to out-
law abortion in the third trimester of pregnancy
except when the procedure is necessary to pre-
serve the life of the mother.
Roe evoked impassioned responses from
those who were morally or religiously opposed
to abortion, and in the years following that case,
abortion became one of the most contentious
issues in U.S. law. Those opposed to the proce-
dure became a powerful political lobby in the
United States. Their efforts to promote the
rights of unborn humans have had a significant
effect on the law.
However, the cause of fetal rights has been
greeted with suspicion by those who are con-
cerned that the state may protect fetal rights at
the expense of women’s rights. For this reason,
many feminists have been highly critical of
claims regarding fetal rights. Such claims, they
argue, can work to significantly diminish
women’s rights to self-determination and bodily
autonomy.
At the same time, most legal experts recog-
