In 1995, a woman who was pregnant and refused to discontinue her use of cocaine was reported by her obstetrician to child-abuse authorities. They obtained an order from the juvenile court to take custody of the unborn child, which, in this case, involved detaining the mother against her will. The court maintained that in order to protect the fetus, it had to detain the mother. The mother gave birth while in a drug treatment center. She sued the state for detaining her illegally. The case was settled after the child was born, with the court finding that the state acted wrongly in taking protective custody of the fetus while it was still in the womb. As a result of these sorts of cases, state legislatures have passed laws such as the Wisconsin law mentioned above, which define fetuses more clearly as children deserving protection.
If the fetus is regarded as a child who is being abused, then is it reasonable, in your view, to detain the mother? If the fetus is thus viewed as a person, should it have access to other rights and privileges? Would it also be reasonable for a pregnant woman to be able to use a car-pool lane by counting her fetus as a second person in the car? If a pregnant woman is killed, resulting in the death of the fetus, does that count as one murder or two?