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Daniel A. Ruley, Jr
Ruley and Everett Parkersburg, Va

JAMA. 1989;261(12):1729-1730.

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

To the Editor. —

In his reply¹ to my letter,² Dr Nelson noted my exception to his statement that the criminal law historically does not recognize the killing of a fetus in utero as homicide. I now wish to reaffirm that historically the criminal law did recognize the killing of a fetus in utero as homicide and also take additional exception to his reply by demonstrating its superficiality as well as his error.

Dr Nelson, in his reply, argued that he cited "three modern (ie, since 1980) appellate court opinions" for his position and added the following:

One of these opinions 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. Another stated that at common law `the killing of a fetus was not murder . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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