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Full-Text Articles in Law
Shifting Our Focus From Retribution To Social Justice: An Alternative Vision For The Treatment Of Pregnant Women Who Harm Their Fetuses, April L. Cherry
Shifting Our Focus From Retribution To Social Justice: An Alternative Vision For The Treatment Of Pregnant Women Who Harm Their Fetuses, April L. Cherry
Journal of Law and Health
The ways in which society responds to pregnant women whose behavior purportedly harms their fetuses can be explored from a variety of legal vantage points. This article argues that the criminal law model currently used is ineffective. The assignment of criminal liability to pregnant women is often rooted in fetal personhood and maternal deviance discourse. Criminal law solutions fail because they fail to take into account the fact that maternal behavior is often the result of a myriad of the social and economic conditions over which pregnant women have little or no control. The criminal law model, therefore, simply punishes …
Inconsistent State Court Rulings Concerning Pregnancy-Related Behaviors, Lidia Hoffman, Monica K. Miller
Inconsistent State Court Rulings Concerning Pregnancy-Related Behaviors, Lidia Hoffman, Monica K. Miller
Journal of Law and Health
State courts vary in their willingness to protect pregnant women's rights to self-determination, bodily integrity, privacy, and religious freedom; these rights are sometimes outweighed by fetal rights to live. Different state courts have issued many competing decisions, which emphasizes a lack of unification in this area of law. This inconsistency in the law creates confusion for women concerning the scope of their legal protections and alters women's selection of prenatal care and decision to give birth. Thus, it is important to recognize the prevailing themes and grounds on which courts have rested their opinions. An analysis of these state court …