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- cross-posted to:
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A Texas man who drugged his wife’s drinks in an attempt to induce an abortion was sentenced to 180 days in jail and 10 years on probation.
Mason Herring, a 39-year-old Houston attorney, pleaded guilty Wednesday to injury to a child and assault of a pregnant person. He had initially been charged with felony assault to induce abortion.
Catherine Herring, who has filed for divorce, told the court the jail sentence was not long enough. She said their 1-year-old daughter, their third child, was born about 10 weeks premature, has developmental delays and attends therapy eight times a week.
That’s very interesting and since posting this I’ve been thinking about it, you could probably sue someone in civil court for this kind of thing.
But a fetus is not a human.
I’m not a lawyer or a judge, but a fetus is not a human.
Ok, I won’t disagree on your definitions. But the charge of “Injury to a Child” is still appropriate here. A child was eventually injured as a result of an assault.
Now that would be a matter of the law. I don’t know if you can be accused of assaulting someone before they were a human. At the time of the crime, no child was injured.
I think the pregnant person was assaulted and the penalty was possibly way to low, but saying that a child was injured is incorrect. I don’t have the answer, but it seems like the mother should be compensated somehow for her assault, enough even to possibly help with the eventual child that was born. But a fetus is not a human is my main point.
I’m sure there is a moral solution to this, but claiming that fetus’ are humans is not that solution.
Edit: I would even argue we could penalize people for assaulting a fetus if that that is what we wanted to do. But calling a fetus a child is just plain incorrect.
Edit: I take that back. Assaulting a fetus is not a thing. Full stop. Assaulting a pregnant person is.
I do have the answer. In Texas, injuring a pregnant woman that results in injury to the child that is eventually born is called “Injury to a Child”.
It’s not a child.
(I edited my comment above to answer this)
A child was born. That child is injured.
I don’t think we are in disagreement that there should be some form of compensation for the mother to help with the care of her child. What I am arguing is that a fetus is not a human.
I am not disagreeing with you on the definition of the word “fetus”. A fetus is not a child. We agree. Good. Next topic: appropriate charges in the case being discussed…
I am letting you know what Texas Penal Code and case law in Texas indicate are appropriate charges when a pregnant woman is assaulted and then gives birth to a child who has an injury that resulted from the assault. The child is a complainant in a charge called “Injury to a Child”.
Texas is wrong in a lot of ways. This seems like a way for them to codify fetus’ into law as being humans, which is not correct. I’m saying no child was injured and the law doesn’t make any sense.
Edit: and if this is an example of injury to a child how did this guy get off on that charge?