Judge Rules a Fetus Has Legal Rights, Appoints Conservator For Her

WASHINGTON - Dec. 7, 2022 - PRLog -- A judge has ruled that a fetus has legal rights, and has appointed a conservator to protect those rights from financial agreements being entered into by a pregnant wife and her husband which might impact them.

But the principle that a fetus has legal rights entitled to protection, and can be represented long before birth by an attorney, was being established long before that, says public interest law professor John Banzhaf, who wrote about several such cases in the mid 1960s.

He is also the author of a more recent legal piece which explains how the concept that an unborn fetus can be represented by a lawyer, and that a lawyer may also sue a doctor and others on behalf of a fetus no longer alive for the damages it suffered from being aborted, is now threatening reproductive rights after the Supreme Court ended constitution protection for abortion rights, even in states which support the right to an abortion.

Two recent judicial cases show that this principle - that a fetus prior to birth has legal rights - is alive and well, and is likely to expand now that the right to an abortion is no longer constitutionally protected.

WASHINGTON POST - "The next battleground in the fight over abortion rights in the US" since fetal rights laws grant a fetus the same legal rights (including to life) as a person.

BOSTON GLOBE - Fetal rights could "upend the meaning of equality under the law," and deny states "the authority to allow abortions in cases of rape or incest."

JOHN F. BANZHAF III, B.S.E.E., J.D., Sc.D.
Professor of Public Interest Law Emeritus
George Washington University Law School
"The Man Behind the Ban on Cigarette Commercials"
FAMRI Dr. William Cahan Distinguished Professor
Fellow, World Technology Network
Founder, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)
Inventor of the "Banzhaf Index"
(202) 994-7229 // (703) 527-8418
http://banzhaf.net/   jbanzhaf3ATgmail.com   @profbanzhaf