Inhuman judgement
A CANADIAN judge has ruled that a full-term baby who died during childbirth was "not human".
Justice Patricia Rowbotham told the bereaved couple that the law did not consider their child to be a human baby. She said that the child possessed no legal status until it was "born alive and viable".
The parents were awarded damages for the doctor's admitted negligence, but were refused an additional sum to compensate for their bereavement at the death of their child.
Gwen Landoll, a lawyer for REAL women Canada, condemned the decision as a "legal fiction" denying the humanity of the unborn child. She questioned the competence of a court which could flagrantly oppose medical and scientific facts.