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3/3/2013 9:30:15 PM
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If a pregnant woman attempts suicide and the fetus dies...

[url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/03/bei-bei-shuai-trial-baby-photos-banned-courtroom_n_2800868.html?utm_hp_ref=crime]...should she be charged with murder?[/url] [quote]Bei Bei Shuai was hospitalized after she attempted suicide by eating rat poison on Dec. 23, 2010, when she was eight months pregnant. Doctors delivered her daughter, Angel Shuai, on Dec. 31 and the infant died three days later. Prosecutors arrested Bei Bei Shuai on charges of murder and feticide in March 2011, saying a note she left to her former boyfriend proved that Shuai intended to kill her baby when she ate the rat poison. But Judge Sheila Carlisle ruled in January that the doctor who determined the poison caused the baby's death hadn't considered other possible causes, including a drug administered to Shuai while she was in the hospital. That effectively deprived prosecutors of the cause of death on which their case rested. Prosecutors said earlier this week they wouldn't appeal Carlisle's ruling, and their next step was unclear.[/quote] So if a pregnant woman attempts suicide and fails, but her baby dies, should she be charged with murder? I, for one, don't think so. There's no law against suicide in Indiana (contrary to popular belief, suicide generally isn't against the law in the U.S.). In general, if I kill someone while doing something legal, I can't be charged with murder. I don't see why it's different in this case.

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  • Couple of things. If the mother is in her 3rd trimester, the baby is considered alive. So, if she does a "cry for help" attempt, then I believe she should be charged, at a minimum with reckless endangerment and manslaughter, maybe up to Neglegent Homocide. Now, if she really tried to do it, and failed, then I don't know. Like if she tried to jump from a building and miraculously survived. In that circumstances, I am not so sure.

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