Sticky Situations

Often in the abortion debate, pro-life people bring up cases where a criminal who kills a pregnant woman, and thereby her child, is charged with double homicide under fetal homicide laws. Immediately, opponents will ask about how careful women have to be to protect their pregnancies : can a woman be prosecuted for drinking or smoking during her pregnancy? (At least one woman has been charged for illegal drug use during pregnancy, although her conviction was overturned.)

For most pro-choice people, birth is the game changer. After a child is born, he or she receives legal protection. What happens if a child dies after birth? I read about this case, where a woman's attempt at suicide during her pregnancy allegedly caused her child to die after birth. Now, she is being charged with murder. While I am supportive of legal consequences for people who harm babies in utero, I worry about this one, mostly because suicide is very often the result of mental/emotional problems. So even if her (alleged) action objectively deserves the potential consequences, her culpability may be nuanced.