Introduction

The initial proposal for this book did not include a chapter on life before birth. I had proposed covering the issues around pregnancy in the chapter on adulthood, but the reviewers were keen to see a full chapter on these issues. With some reluctance I agreed, and I am now glad I did. Although I still find it enormously problematic to discuss the fetus as an abstract entity, for reasons which will be explored below, the legal response to the fetus and the ethical debates around its status, tell us much about how the law and society understands humanity and what it is to be a person in ethical and legal terms. How the law responds to the fetus can, therefore, indicate what the law values about human life, which can have significance throughout the life course. As we shall see, the debates over the importance of autonomy, mental capacity, biological life, and relationships feature in the arguments over the status of the fetus as they do throughout all the stages of life.

The difficulty about writing about the fetus is that discussion very quickly leads to fierce debates around abortion. To discuss the position of the fetus without considering the position of the woman is seen as playing into the ‘pro-life’ view on abortion, which seeks to put the rights of the fetus on one side of the scale and the rights of the woman on the other, with the fetus having the stronger claim. Conversely, focusing on the experiences of the pregnant woman will be seen by some as playing into the ‘pro-choice’ view of the mother's rights taking centre stage and skewing the arguments in her favour. Indeed, for some, once (or if) it is established that the fetus has a right to life, then whatever claims may be raised by a woman they will be defeated by the rights of the fetus. Similarly, there are those who see the woman's absolute right to bodily integrity as meaning that whatever claims may be made by the fetus they are defeated by the rights of the woman. All too often this means, in effect, that neither side of the debate feels they need to listen carefully to the arguments of the other because both sides believe they have a trump card.