This week we're learning, scientifically, about the process of development, from conception to death. This Discussion Board will address the topic of fetal rights...this is not intended to become a platform for ProLife or ProChoice. You are certainly welcome to respectfully express your opinions, but the intention is to exercise critical thinking with this week's scientific material, juxtaposed with emerging laws that test boundaries and provide avenues for ideologies to be inserted into State Laws.

Anti-abortion laws recognizing what's known as fetal personhood are being used to prosecute pregnant or postpartum patients with a history of substance abuse. In states including Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma and South Carolina, health care providers have shared personal information with law enforcement, sometimes without a warrant or informing the patient. The Marshall Project's Cary Aspinwall wrote about several mothers who were incarcerated for child endangerment or neglect even after they delivered healthy babies. NPR featured this story:

The question is "Does a Fetus Have the Same Legal Rights as its Mother"?

There are now a few states where, by law, a fetus able to live outside its mother's body is considered a person with legal rights. (Think about lecture material and the term VIABILITY - a scientific term).

The legal system continues to struggle with the issue of fetal rights. In Racine, Wisconsin, Deborah Zimmerman was charged with trying to kill her 6-month-old daughter, Megan, before her birth. The night of the birth, Zimmerman's blood alcohol level was 0.30, three times the legal level in Wisconsin. When she was delivered, Megan had a blood alcohol level of 0.199, nearly twice the level considered to make an adult legally drunk. Like many victims of fetal alcohol syndrome, Megan was born with facial abnormalities and, in all likelihood, severe cognitive impairment. Also, this was not the first time Megan's mother had run afoul of the law due to her problems with alcohol. She had been convicted of the 1983 drunk-driving death of a Milwaukee man for which she served one year in prison.

Perhaps the most significant factor in the case was that on the night Zimmerman gave birth to Megan, hospital workers overheard her threatening to kill her unborn child by drinking. It was their testimony, showing Zimmerman's intent to do harm, that led prosecutors to file charges of both attempted homicide and reckless injury.

The implications of the developing fetus's emerging identity as a person pose a number of legal, medical, and ethical questions. For example, the medical community's ever-increasing technology and understanding of prenatal hazards raise important questions regarding the balance between the mother's rights as an individual and those of the developing fetus she is carrying. Increasingly, doctors are able to treat the fetus itself as a patient with distinct medical needs.

• As technology advances, should women be expected, and even legally required, to submit to medical intervention including surgery that might save a fetus but risk their own lives?
• Similarly, what about mothers-to-be who knowingly endanger their unborn offspring by continuing to use addictive drugs or by engaging in other potentially harmful behaviors?
• Should the father who contributed the sperm have any legal or moral obligations to the healthy development of the fetus?
• Should the father's health (substance use) be scrutinized as well?

The above are difficult prompts, but I encourage to evaluate this using a scientific lens first,then incorporate opinion as best can using this week's material as a foundation for a robust discussion.

Again, this is not intended to spark controversial debate about ProLife/ProChoice; that is not what this DB is about. This is about maternal substance use based on the arguement of Fetal Personhood Laws.