engleski

"Sacrificing children for children” Feticide - a crime or a “solution” for parents and the society

In this paper, the authors begin with the usual encyclopaedia definition of feticide as “the intentional killing of one or several foetuses in the womb of the mother to reduce the number of egg cells fertilised after assisted reproductive technology application or to terminate pregnancy because of genetic mutations“. As the issue here is all about selectively killing live and healthy foetuses, but also the foetuses with hereditary diseases, many questions appear for a reason. The authors will not provide ready-made answers but will put them in a broader – social – context, not closing their eyes to such problems. Since the answers depend on the context these questions are put into, the answers to the following questions will depend on whether we are discussing the issue from the medical, religious, ethical, political, demographic, legal or sociological perspective. The questions of concern are as follows: 1) Is feticide a crime, as it involves intentional selective killing of live and healthy fertilised egg cells, without endangering the life of the mother? ; 2) If it is not a crime or even a minor offence, is feticide then “a means” used by parents with no children who, by using reproductive medicine and destroying excess foetuses, want to become parents and have a healthy child capable of living? ; 3) Or, is feticide a means used by both parents with and without children to prevent giving birth to a child with hereditary diseases with the help of reproductive medicine? 4) If it is neither a crime nor a minor offence, isn’t feticide then a socially useful and desirable means to prevent giving birth to children with hereditary diseases and avoid “unnecessary” costs of their long term treatment for both the society and the state? 6) Or is feticide perhaps a legal and legitimate “demographic” means to regulate the population size or a means to create “a custom-made man” in line with the current racial ideology? 7) And finally: by entering actively the area of creation, hasn’t the man made his Creator (if he believes in it) completely unnecessary and redundant? It is worthwhile pointing out that the authors have placed discussion into the context of contemporary Croatian society, that is, into the context of the already initiated public discussion on the (un)necessary amendments to the Act on Medically Assisted Procreation and they are looking for an answer to the question: who is in the Republic of Croatia (RC) entitled to decide on the exact beginning of human life: a) one of religious communities in RC (the Catholic Church, for instance), or 2) the current legislative (political) authorities? If the announced amendments to the Act on Medically Assisted Procreation take place and if, accordingly, the beginning of life is defined as the moment of birth or no sooner than the 5th week of pregnancy, then human life would not begin by conception, feticide would not be treated as criminal offence and could be regularly implemented in Croatia. If the stances of catholic theologians are taken into consideration upon the passing of the Act, which was the case up to this day, then feticide will be seen as offence and will not be allowed in Croatia, as human life in such circumstances begins at conception. In both cases – the question of if feticide is deemed a crime or not – it is still a social construct of the beginning of (human) life, or the social (legislative) construct of feticide as a crime or feticide as a breakthrough solution for families and the society.

reproductive medicine; genetic mutations; selective feticide; medically assisted procreation; hereditary diseases; the Church; politics.

nije evidentirano