Many observers who study patterns in tort law have concluded that continued expansion of tort recovery for prenatal injury is leading to the recognition of the fetus as a person (Annas 1982, 17; Lenow 1983, 1). The trend toward abrogating the parental immunity rule and efforts to sur­ mount the practical difficulties of a parent-child suit clearly presage the

day when a cause of action by a child against its mother for prenatal injury might be upheld. Furthermore, criminal law has increasingly been used to constrain the choices of pregnant women (Field 1989) or to punish them for their actions which harm the fetuses they are carrying (Balisy 1987; Losco 1989; McNulty 1988). Although these trends are incompatible with a woman’s constitutional right to abortion and threaten to contradict her procreative autonomy and bodily integrity, they demonstrate a growing legal concern for the welfare of the unborn and for a right of all children to be bom with a sound mind and body.