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Wednesday, July 28, 2004

So is it a person under the law or not?

I find this story interesting, a midwife is being charged with criminal negligence causing death:

French Beach woman faces charges in relation to the death of a infant during an attempted natural childbirth at a Sooke home in June. […]

It is alleged Labadie presented herself as an experienced midwife for a woman who wanted to have a natural childbirth. The birth was the second for the woman. It was identified as a breech and natural childbirth was not advised by a doctor, Latham said. It is alleged Labadie acted negligently prior to and during the birth, which resulted in the death.

A sad tale to be sure, but this raises a couple of questions. Why is the midwife the one that’s negligent but not the mother? The mother was advised by a doctor to avoid natural childbirth as it was too risky, but she chose to do it anyway. Is this what they mean by a woman’s right to choose? The mother avoids any legal consequence of careless decisions but the midwife she hired bears the brunt instead. It certainly appears there were also poor decisions by the midwife, but these merely followed initial reckless course of action initiated by the mother.

I would also note that she is being held legally accountable for the death in this case, when she could have deliberately killed the baby in the womb without any consequence at all. Perhaps that’s the lesson midwives and doctors should draw from this case, given the current state of the laws in this country. A doctor or midwife facing a complicated birth may be tempted to kill the baby in the womb rather than suffer the legal consequences as this midwife has.

(Crossposted at Trudeaupia)

Posted by Kevin Jaeger on July 28, 2004 in Canadian Conservative Politics | Permalink

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