The foetus must be considered a
person during its mother's labour, Italy's top court said
Thursday.
A negligent obstetrician this must answer to culpable
manslaughter and not culpable abortion if she causes the death
of the foetus during labour, said the supreme Court of
Cassation.
In the present context of "total broadening of the safeguard
of the rights of the person and the notion of subject deserving
of safeguard," the top justices wrote, "the foetus, although
still in the uterus, must be considered a "man" during labour.
Safeguarding potential rights extend from the future person
to the conceived child to the embryo, the Cassation Court said.
The court's rulings set precedents for the Italian legal
system
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