If a guy caused a woman to have a miscarriage, is that murder?

Question

If a guy caused a woman to have a miscarriage, is that murder?

Answer 1

Yes, I do believe it could be prosecuted as murder. However, it may vary from state to state. If it is not classified as murder in that state, it would be a lesser degree felony (but certainly a serious crime)

When a man murders a woman that is also pregnant, he is often charged twice for murder. If convicted of both murders he can get the death penalty in many states.

It is definately a crime. I can't just walk up to a pregnant women (even if she is only in her first trimester) and punch her in the stomach and kill her fetus and say "Oh well women have abortions all the time so it is OK for me to kill your fetus." Only the woman can decided to kill her fetus. The man cannot make the decision for her.

I don't know what specific way you are referring to. I suppose he could secretly give her a chemical abortion pill and cause her to miscarry, or some other type of poisen. He could punch her in the stomach or throw her on the ground so hard that the fetus died. Anything he did, even if was an accident, would be a crime. Even if he pushed a woman but didn't intend for her child to be killed (or didn't know she was pregnang) he would still be held criminally responsible.

Again, the woman carrying the fetus is the only one that can decide to abort it. She is the only one with the choice. Anyone else that makes that choice for her and causes the fetus to die is criminally responsible.

Answer 2

well it depends, it might be legal it might not but heres what i think it should be,

if women say that its there right to choose to murder there baby if they want, then i believe it should be just as much a mans right to murder that baby, because a baby is half the mother half the fathers, not that any murder is right of course

Answer 3

ABSOLUTELY.

This is because if a guy caused a woman to have a miscarriage it is probably because he abused her.  Abuse is illegal.  She has to know she was pregnant though in order for it to be persued, like the person above me said, women do ave miscarriages all the time and don't know about them.  Howver, if she was pregnant, and he beat the c**p out of her and the baby died, that is completely illegal.  Also, that man is a pig and should be jailed for life.

Answer 4

It could be viewed that way by a prosecutor/district attorney if what the PERSON (why does it have to be a guy) did was intentional and with the aim of causing a miscarriage.

Answer 5

Contrary to the answer given previously, you can cause someone to have a miscarriage if you cause them physical harm that leads directly to a miscarriage.  It happens, for example, in cases of domestic violence.

Whether it counts as murder depends, presumably, on the local law.  In most places I don't think it would be considered murder in a legal sense.  

Ethically you might come to a different conclusion.  If you were to accept the premise that life begins at conception (as pro-lifers say) then causing a miscarriage would be considered murder in an ethical sense.

Answer 6

Women who don't even know they're pregnant have miscarriages all the time, the scientific literature says.  You can't *cause* anyone to have a miscarriage anymore than you can *cause* someone to have a heart attack or a stroke or *cause* them to wet themselves by telling a very funny joke, etc.  You have no control over another person's body.

*Obviously I didn't mean in the physical sense.  An attacker can most certainly *cause* broken bones, miscarriages and whatever other physical, bodily harm.  That's obvious.  A direct link would need to be proven in a court of law: not-so-so easy to prove.

And where I live its not murder.

Answer 7

Falcon Punch!

Different countries have different laws.  All I can tell you is that in the UK a foetus is not a person until it is born.  Causing a miscarraige through an assault would be deemed to be a serious injury to the mother, and certainly a judge will be thougher in giving out a sentence; but the crime the guy is guilty of would be assault occasioning greivous bodily harm, not murder or manslaughter.  In English law an unborn child is classed as a part of the mother's body, and such an assault would be treated in the same way that an assault resulting in kidney failure or a burst lung would be.

Answer 8

In very few places is this the case for two reasons:

1.  There are few actions that a man can perform on a pregnant woman that specifically cause miscarriage.  It would need to be proven in court and therin lies the second problem:

2.  In most places , a foetus is not considered to be independent life, and therefore has no rights as such.  This same discretion allows for terminations, both voluntary and involuntary.  There are places where these laws differ.

There is an exception to this that has been tried in court with varying results: a damaged foetus can sue the assailant (even if it is the mother) for damages if it survives birth and is measurable damaged as a result of the assault.

Remember also that an assailant (they are not always men) is not usually presumed to be aware of the existence of the foetus (that has to be tried in court), and a blow in response to an attack by a pregnant woman (rare, but known to happen) can be considered self-defence under law.

A case near where I live had a woman try and sue several people because her foetus miscarried after she got into a fight that she started.  She lost the case because the medical evidence found no significant contact with her abdominal area, and she was medicated (inappropriately) and had not slept for two days, all of which were considered to have been much greater contributing factors.  A sordid affair, to be sure.

There have even been cases where miscarriages have occurred due to abdominal blows from the handle of a shopping trolley, say it gets pushed back into her or something.  Again rare, it does show that miscarriage is often cause by a number of effects in each instance.

Answer 9

I know of a guy who pushed his pregnant girlfriend down a flight of stairs - she was in her ninth month and of course, it killed the baby.  So yeah, I'd consider that murder.

Answer 10

h**l no.    ... but if you think it is...

If a woman causes a guy to get her pregnant (turkey baster, perforated condom, lying about taking b.c.)- is this playing GOD?

And is playing GOD as much a sin as murder?

Answer 11

Well it would be hard to prove that the man was the reason, but sad to say, I think if abortion is legal and the baby wasn't a viable individual, there wouldn't be anything done.  

Answer 12

I think it would be a domestic violence issue with a second or third degree involuntary manslaughter charge. It would also have to do with the facts surrounding what happened.

Answer 13

Only if the fetus has reached a stage of viability (in accordance with abortion laws). The law may vary according to jurisdiction.

Answer 14

It depends where you live and what the laws are.

In the Australian state where I live, there were two very similar cases in a short time, where pregnant women were innocent victims of crimes which resulted in spontaneous abortion (a medical term for miscarriage).

One of the pregnancies was quite far along, eight months or so, and the incidents were one case of assault and one case of drink driving.

The police could find nothing to charge the criminals with so legislators stepped in and created a law where someone who does a criminal act which leads to a woman miscarrying a wanted pregnancy can be charged with a crime.

This is an extension of the Grievous Bodily Harm law, and is based on the harm to the pregnant woman. The law was approached this way because there are no laws in Common Law which personify the foetus and the legislators did not want to write new law, just strengthen existing ones by adding further protections.

The law specifically excludes 'medical procedures', including termination of pregnancy by the woman.

As you can imagine, the law is very controversial, and in fact no-one has yet been charged with this new crime.

Many people have strong views about it, and the first case to come to court will attract a lot of attention.

Other places do have similar laws, but many more do not.

Best wishes :-)

Answer 15

he would be a loser 4 life thats it.