http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26988-2003May7.html Conn. Supreme Court: Fetus Is Body Part By MATT APUZZO The Associated Press Wednesday, May 7, 2003; 7:07 PM HARTFORD, Conn. - Angering both sides of the abortion debate, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a fetus is a body part, akin to teeth, skin and hair that are eventually shed. The ruling unanimously upheld the conviction of a man who tried to induce a miscarriage by slipping his girlfriend labor-inducing drugs. Edwin Sandoval argued he could not be charged with attempting to commit aggravated assault because the fetus was the target, not the mother. Though the court held that the 5-week-old fetus was part of the woman's body, Chief Justice William J. Sullivan issued a separate concurring opinion saying a fetus might have "its own independent existence." "In other words, the fetus may both be a part of its mother as well as its own individual being," Sullivan wrote. Anti-abortion groups applauded the court's protection of the fetus, but criticized the identification of a fetus as a body part. "It could have had a different blood type, and certainly it had different DNA," said Bill O'Brien, vice president of the Connecticut Right to Life Corp. Sullivan's opinion, which declared that a fetus may be entitled to legal protection, drew criticism from abortion rights groups. "Any time I hear about giving rights to fetuses, I get concerned," said Elaine Werner, executive director of the Connecticut chapter of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League. "That's the slippery slope to eroding Roe vs. Wade." Sandoval was sentenced in 2001 to 12 years in prison for using ulcer medication in an attempt to induce a miscarriage. The woman later gave birth to a healthy son. Gov. John G. Rowland is expected to sign a bill increasing the penalties for someone convicted of assaulting a pregnant woman and causing her to lose the fetus. The assault would be punishable by 10 to 25 years in prison. Defense attorney Paula Waite said if the fetus is its own life form, the state's abortion laws are in question. If the fetus is a body part, laws increasing the penalty for assaulting a pregnant woman could be jeopardized. Another defense attorney promised to appeal.
The whole abortion issue is getting creepier and creepier. Both sides are coming up with some strange ideas and laws trying to either make abortion illegal or doing what ever they can to keep it from becoming illegal again. A major showdown is looming.
What would they classify this as... Boy 'pregnant' with twin brother The operation was carried out by surgeons in Kazakhstan A seven-year-old boy who was admitted to hospital with stomach pains was actually "pregnant" with his twin brother. Doctors at Chimkent Children's Hospital in Kazakhstan originally believed Mourat Zhanaidarov was suffering from a cyst. But during surgery, they discovered he was in fact carrying the dead foetus of his twin brother. The foetus had developed into a tumour but was found to have hair, nails and bones. 'No longer alive' Doctors at the hospital told the BBC the tumour was the remains of his twin brother's foetus. They said that while it was no longer a living substance it was feeding off the boy's blood supply. If left unchecked it could one day have threatened Mourat's own life. It was remarkable Valentina Vostrikova, Chimkent Children's Hospital The tumour has now been successfully removed. It is believed that the foetus grew inside Mourat while he was developing in the womb. Doctors believe the two foetuses should have developed into conjoined twins. "At first we saw that the boy's organs were squeezed by a large hard swelling covered with black hair," one surgeon told a British newspaper. "As we washed him, we could see that inside him he had his own twin brother. Mourat had been a Siamese twin but nobody knew it. "Something had gone wrong during his mother's pregnancy and the baby grew inside his brother." Valentina Vostrikova, chief surgeon at Chimkent Children's Hospital, told the newspaper: "It was remarkable. For seven years it lived like a parasite inside the boy's body." Doctors at the hospital told the BBC they were unable to explain the phenomenon. They suggested a number of factors could have played a role, including malnutrition in the mother.
