Feticide

“ Hence, the whole question of the criminality of the offence turns on this one fact, the real nature of the fœtus in utero. If the fœtus be a lifeless excretion, however soon it might have received life, the offence is comparatively as nothing; if the fœtus be already, and from the very outset, a human being, alive, however early its stage of development, and existing independently of its mother, though drawing its sustenance from her, the offence becomes, in every stage of pregnancy, murder. ”

“ Two-thirds of all cases of womb disease, says Dr. Tilt, are traceable to child-bearing in feeble women. There are also women to whom pregnancy is a nine months' torture, and others to whom it is nearly certain to prove fatal. Such a condition cannot be discovered before marriage—The detestable crime of abortion is appallingly rife in our day. It is abroad in our land to an extent which would have shocked the dissolute women of pagan Rome—This wholesale, fashionable murder, how are we to stop it? Hundreds of vile men and women in our large cities subsist by this slaughter of the innocent. ”

“ The direct and reliable means of inducing abortion, in the physician’s possession, are only instrumental. Draughts of all kinds, whether purgative, emmenagogue, or so-called specific,—aloes, ergot, or savin,—or energetic poisons, expelling the fœtus through a sudden and profound disturbance of the whole maternal system, as arsenic or cantharides, are too unreliable, unscientific, or dangerous either to mother or child. The justifiable methods are confined to those acting directly on the uterus and its contents, by dilating the os or detaching the membranes. ”

“ Hegar reckoned one abortion to every eight full-term deliveries. Lusk, Marsais, Siebold, Gallard, and other equally prominent but more modern obstetricians and gynæcologists present about the same testimony. From criminal abortion death is very frequent. To tear out the living products of conception by the roots is, in most cases, to give the pregnant woman gratuitous transportation for eternity. Tardieu alone records seventy women who died out of one hundred cases. Even in spontaneous cases, as we have seen, death may occur from hæmorrhage, shock, peritonitis, septicæmia, etc. ”

“ For all others beside the physician there can be no allowable excuse except, in the mother’s case, insanity; which, however common in the true puerperal state, and often no doubt then showing itself by infanticide, has in early pregnancy, and to any extent, still to be observed. Other pleas as offered by the mother, ignorance of pregnancy or of fœtal life, duress, personal health or that of her family, accident, carelessness, fear of child-bed, malpractice on part of the attendant, we have already considered at sufficient length. ”

“ In the majority of instances of forced abortion, the act is committed prior to the usual period of quickening. There are other women, who have confessed to me that they have destroyed their children long after they have felt them leap within their womb. There are others still, whom I have known to wilfully suffocate them during birth, or to prevent the air from reaching them under the bedclothes; and there are others, who have wilfully killed their wholly separated and breathing offspring, by strangling them or drowning them, or throwing them into a noisome vault. ”

“ The patient or parties interested are proved by the attempt to have supposed pregnancy existing, and to have behaved as though this were the fact.
The age of the patient is not of consequence; nor is that of the fœtus, save as corresponding with the alleged period of pregnancy, in case any doubt exist as to its own identity or that of the mother, and as bearing on the statement we have already attempted to prove, that criminal abortion [50] is comparatively rare after the period of quickening, and, therefore, on the probability of intent. ”

“ Could the test of confession be always applied, as is, however, manifestly impossible, so many women die during or in consequence of an abortion, without the attendance of a physician and without making any sign, it would be found that many of the cases now reported upon our bills of mortality as deaths from hemorrhage, from menorrhagia, from dysentery, from peritonitis, from inflammation of the bowels or of the womb, from obscure tumor, or from uterine cancer, would be found in reality to be deaths from intentional abortion. ”

“ Is not, then, forced abortion a crime? Moreover, instances have occurred where, the membranes having been accidentally ruptured, the child has breathed, and even cried, though yet unborn, as proved alike by the sounds within the mother, well authenticated by bystanders, and by auscultation of her abdomen, and by the fact that sometimes, when not born living, the lungs of the fœtus have been found fully expanded, a process which can be effected only by respiration, and of which the proofs are such as can be occasioned in no other way whatever. ”

“ Men, if they are only rich enough, die of 'congestion of the brain,' not 'delirium tremens;' and women, similarly situated, do not die from the effects of abortion, but of 'inflammation of the bowels,' etc."
"Infanticide, as it is generally considered (destroying a child after quickening) , is of very rare occurrence in New York, whereas abortions (destroying the embryo before quickening) are of daily habit in the families of the best informed and most religious; among those abounding in wealth, as well as among the poor and needy." [33]
33 Gardner. ”

“ On this point, let it be said that all sane and intelligent men and women agree that anything even approaching infanticide is nothing short of a crime, and that abortion, except for the purpose of saving the life of the mother, is practically murder. ”

“ Of course, when brought about with criminal intent, abortion is nothing less than murder in the first degree; and if the law of the land does not discover and punish the criminal, the higher law of the God of Nature and of Nature's inexorable reprisals for interference with, or destruction of her beneficent designs, will sooner or later most certainly do so. When abortion is due to pathological causes it is usually preceded by the death of the fœtus; so that the causes of abortion are really the causes producing the death of the fœtus. ”

“ The results of abortion from natural causes, as obstetric disease, separate or in common, of mother, fœtus, or membranes, or from a morbid habit consequent on its repetition, are much worse than those following the average of labors at the full period. If the abortion be from accident, from external violence, mental shock, great constitutional disturbance from disease or poison, or even necessarily induced by the skilful physician in early pregnancy, the risks are worse. ”

“ The signs of delivery that are well marked at the full period, the general symptoms then obtaining, the size of the uterus, ascertained by the hand and sound, lacerations of the perineum and cervix, the lochia, the state of the breasts, abdomen, vagina, and vulva, all of little value except in conjunction with each other, are proportionately less defined as we go back, until near the commencement of pregnancy it becomes impossible to distinguish the abortion from severe hemorrhage or from menorrhagia, unless by detecting the impregnated ovum. ”

“ The traction between the uterus and vagina is essential to the procedure because attempting to abort a fetus without using that traction is described by Dr. Carhart as "pulling the cat's tail" or "drag [ging] a string across the floor, you'll just keep dragging it. It's not until something grabs the other end that you are going to develop traction." Id., at 62. The fetus, in many cases, dies just as a human adult or child would: It bleeds to death as it is torn from limb from limb. ”

“ We have shown reason to suppose that we equal them in guilt, if we do not exceed them. Now it must be borne in mind that the French are Catholic; that the rules of that church do not, as has been generally supposed, permit abortion in the earlier months, [99] but that they rigidly exercise over fœtal life throughout pregnancy the most absolute guard and supervision; [100] instances of this in cases where craniotomy is supposed to be indicated, are familiar to every practitioner. ”

“ The protection of the fetus when it has acquired life is a legitimate concern of the State. Georgia's law makes no rational, discernible decision on that score. [12] For under the Code, the developmental stage of the fetus is irrelevant when pregnancy is the result of rape, when the fetus will very likely be born with a permanent defect, or when a continuation of the pregnancy will endanger the life of the mother or permanently injure her health. When life is present is a question we do not try to resolve. ”

“ It cannot be alleged in excuse that the sex of the child, so fatal in advanced pregnancy, has any influence in producing early abortion. In 293 premature still-births reported by Collins, [117] 146 were male and 147 female, bearing the proportion of 100 to 100. Nor can the plea of Drs. Gordon Smith, Good, Paris, and Copeland, that as a fœtus born before the seventh month has a slender chance of surviving, its murder should be viewed with leniency, [118] be allowed. ”

“ If performed for the purpose of killing the child, the crime is murder; in the absence of such intent, it is manslaughter. The woman who commits an abortion upon herself is likewise guilty of the crime.”
Premature Labor is the termination of pregnancy after the seventh month, but before term. Premature births are much less frequent than abortions or miscarriages. They usually occur spontaneously, but are sometimes induced for therapeutic purposes, or from criminal motives.
The premature baby’s chances of living are directly proportionate to the length of its uterine life. ”

“ Whatever ideas on the subject of abortion the human mind may have forced itself to entertain, let the slightest proof concerning the existence of fœtal life be alleged, and maternal instinct at once makes itself known: the parent, as after its birth, would often even perish to preserve her child. ”

“ By the Common Law and by many of our State Codes, fœtal life, per se, is almost wholly ignored and its destruction unpunished; abortion in every case being considered an offence mainly against the mother, and as such, unless fatal to her, a mere misdemeanor, or wholly disregarded.
By the Moral Law, the wilful killing of a human being at any stage of its existence is Murder. ”

“ But as the object of the present work is to illustrate abortion, and not the complete life-circle of the fœtus, I shall stop the number of my propositions at the fifth iiimonth of its intro-uterine existence. After that period, the various phenomena of fœtal gestation are so uniform, that they afford less matter of interest to the philosopher.
13. Conception, or that result which follows sexual congress, in virtue of which one, or more individuals, of the same species is called into being, takes place in the ovarium of women. ”

“ Death of Child by Abortion.—If, in attempting to produce an abortion, the child is caused to be born alive but before the end of the period of gestation, and when it is not capable of sustaining life, and it dies, the person producing the abortion and bringing the child into the world at this time and in this manner is guilty of murder. ”

“ The fact, therefore, is now scientifically established that the embryo from the first moment of conception or fecundation is a human being, having a human immortal soul.
II. Now we come to the direct study of abortion. Abortion, or miscarriage, strictly means the expulsion of the fœtus before it is viable, i.e., before it is sufficiently developed to continue its life outside of the maternal womb. The period of arrival at viability is usually after the twenty-eighth week of gestation. ”

“ We begin with the common law, under which abortion was a crime at least after "quickening"—i.e., the first felt movement of the fetus in the womb, which usually occurs between the 16th and 18th week of pregnancy. ”

“ The causes of an immediately or secondarily fatal result of labor at the full period are few; in abortion nearly every one of these is present, with the addition of others peculiar to the sudden and untimely interruption of a natural process, and the death of the product of conception. There is the same or greater physical shock, the same or greater liability to hemorrhage, the same and much greater liability to subsequent uterine or ovarian disease. ”

“ An opinion is very prevalent that if abortion be produced before the movements of the foetus are felt, there is no crime committed. It should be remembered that life begins with conception, and, at whatever period of pregnancy abortion is committed, life is destroyed. Whoever disobeys the Divine injunction cannot escape his own consciousness of the deed, and the anguish and bitter remorse which ever after disturb the soul.
Treatment. In threatened abortion, there is pain in the back or lower part of the abdomen, and later some flow of blood. ”

“ Of this last class of causes, obstinate vomiting, puerperal convulsions, which are by no means confined to the full period of pregnancy, dropsies, irreducible displacements of the uterus, varix of the external labial vessels, sometimes fatal by laceration from tension, are all instances in point. With regard to each, the necessity of the abortion must be determined with the greatest caution, and resort be had to it, the child still living, with reluctance ”

“ Twisting of the cord, hydramnios, syphilis, an acute infectious disease in the mother, poisonings of the mother by metals and the like substances, maternal cardiac and renal diseases, chronic inflammations and displacements of the womb, and violent emotions are some of the causes of abortion. In certain women a slight exertion, a misstep, a fall, a ride over a rough road, the debitum conjugale, and similar causes bring on abortion; in other women almost no shock is enough to make them miscarry. ”