Maternal responsibility to the child not yet born

The fetus lacks a legal personality but is valued and protected in a variety of ways in both criminal and tort law. ¹ As Amel Alghrani and Margaret Brazier have pointed out, these protections can render the law’s ‘bright line between the fetus and the baby ‘born alive’’ ² both blurred and difficult to sustain. ³ As we shall see, third parties may be liable for harming the fetus which is later born alive, but to extend this principle to mothers whose actions in pregnancy harm the born alive child is ethically and legally problematic.