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Lawrence J. Nelson, PhD, JD; Nancy Milliken, MD
University of California, San Francisco

JAMA. 1988;260(1):31-32.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

In Reply.—

Mr Ruley takes exception to our statement that the criminal law historically did not recognize the killing of a fetus in utero as homicide. We cited three modern (ie, since 1980) appellate court opinions for this proposition. One of these opinions¹ clearly stated that this rule "has been accepted as the established law in every American jurisdiction that has considered the question" and cited no fewer than ten recent appellate cases to this effect. Another² stated that at common law "the killing of a fetus was not murder unless the child was born alive and then expired as a result of the injuries... sustained." We find these modern appellate authorities to be much more persuasive than Justice Boggs writing a dissenting opinion almost 90 years ago.

We assume Mr Donohoe is referring to Smith v Brennan rather than People v Smith for the proposition that a . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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