Indian Court Says Fetus Entitled To Personhood

Suzanne at Big Blue Wave reported on a very intriguing LifeSiteNews story a few days ago. I’ve been so busy lately developing the VLC website that I haven’t had the time to blog on this story.

MUMBAI, India An Indian state consumer court has delivered an unprecedented ruling in favour of a woman seeking an insurance claim on the death of an unborn child--the court determined that the unborn baby was a living human being entitled to personhood and required the insurance company to pay the claim.

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The Commission drew on United States law under the Unborn Victims of Violence Act from 2004, which made it a crime to injure or cause the death of an unborn child against the will of the mother. Justice B.B. Vagyani issued a ruling for the three-judge panel in November 2006, stating that the term 'human fetus' implies a living, growing organism. Since the unborn baby is living, the commission reasoned, it is entitled to personhood.

The conclusion that an unborn child—in this case a fetus—is a human being, i.e. a person, is hardly a scientific breakthrough. Science, philosophy and theology have each, and jointly, weighed in positively on that question for a very long time. And it’s not a singularly Christian notion either, as Suzanne points out. All moral societies throughout the ages have recognized the humanity of the unborn and have imposed various serious penalties for harming them.

But what is newsworthy is to hear such a verdict in our times from any significant legal body. Although this ruling was reached by an Indian state “consumer court,” it obviously carried serious legal weight because it did bind the insurance company in question to compensate the plaintiff.

The conclusion of the court that the unborn baby is a living human being entitled to personhood is one that our own Supreme Court of Canada has not been willing to provide. Until Canadians demand a law, more especially a Constitutional amendment, which grants this status to our unborn, we will continue to see 100,000 or more Canadians slaughtered in the womb annually.

Christians must lead such a campaign.