'Personhood' Ammendment in Mississippi

[Verarde]

Many doctors and women’s health advocates say the proposals would cause a dangerous intrusion of criminal law into medical care, jeopardizing women’s rights and even their lives.

What an example of media bias.

 

[emzie]

What an example of media bias.

Media says that some people people oppose hypothetical amendment and state their reasons, and that's bias?

 

[_random_]

If the embryo is human, and because of it's existence it kills the mother, is it guilty of murder?

It'd be very difficult to establish mens rea.

Rights of illegal aliens to stay based on anchor persons starts at conception?

The Constitution specifies birth as the beginning of citizenship, so I doubt this would work. A noble thought for sure though.

Edit: Elmac, I missed your post when writing this one, but I'll try to get to it later. I do like the idea of completing this homework though, and you've presented a lot of material for me to think over, so you may have to wait until tomorrow. Sorry about that.

 

[Verarde]

Media says that some people people oppose hypothetical amendment and state their reasons, and that's bias?

No, the fact that they just put it in there, without actually having a quote from said people.

 

[emzie]

No, the fact that they just put it in there, without actually having a quote from said people.

Yeah, I don't think you understand what bias means.

 

[Joecoolyo]

It'd be very difficult to establish mens rea.

Involuntary manslaughter?

 

[JollyRoger]

The Constitution specifies birth as the beginning of citizenship, so I doubt this would work. A noble thought for sure though.

Or naturalized . . . naturalized is stautory and is not necessarily limited to birth as the earliest possible starting point.

Plus, I am not talking citizenship, just a right to not get kicked out. You have a "person" who is entitled to due process of law - can't kick the mother out post-conception if "person" is defined at conception.

 

[mrt144]

What percentage of pregnancies result in miscarriage?

 

[emzie]

What percentage of pregnancies result in miscarriage?

Roughly a third.

 

[mrt144]

Roughly a third.

Those monsters.

 

[Birdjaguar]

What percentage of pregnancies result in miscarriage?

Roughly a third.

That is a lot of cases of involuntary manslaughter to prosecute.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Is anyone going to answer the point about this law turning IVF clinics into murder factories or not?

It would also outlaw the destruction of embryos created in laboratories.

Just keep crippling yourself in the science and technology race, America. I am honestly curious to see how that would turn out.

 

[emzie]

That is a lot of cases of involuntary manslaughter to prosecute.

Well, I think a reasonable court system wouldn't hold a mother libel for what her body did; on the other hand, I think that police are supposed to look into any suspicious deaths. We'll need to have a system to clear women of innocent miscarriages of any wrong doing.

 

[mrt144]

Contre, where is there a reasonable court in Mississippi.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Well, I think a reasonable court system wouldn't hold a mother libel for what her body did; on the other hand, I think that police are supposed to look into any suspicious deaths. We'll need to have a system to clear women of innocent miscarriages of any wrong doing.

I'm not sure any court system that allows such a law to stand is "reasonable".

 

[mangxema]

Some musings on the possible unintended implications of this:

My Slate colleagues and I spent a few minutes imagining some of the possibilities raised by the Mississippi amendment.... Here are some of the questions we came up with:

1. If you are legal person at fertilization, does that mean you could drink at 20 years and three months? Could you drive at 15 and three months? Could you vote at age 17, and collect Social Security at 64?
2. For legal purposes, would your birthday still be your “birth” day? Or your fertilization day?
3. Could you get a tax deduction for your dependent embryo?
4. Could you post ultrasound photos of your fetus (naked) on Facebook? Or would that be child pornography?
5. Could you arrest women for smoking or drinking while pregnant? Could the state file a child abuse case against a mother who didn’t wear a seatbelt or otherwise endangered her fetus?
6. Would you be an American citizen if you were conceived in Mississippi but born elsewhere? Could there be “anchor babies” whose parents come to the United States, have sex, and then return home to Mexico for their baby’s birth?
7. What about ectopic pregnancies? If the embryo is not removed, it could kill the mother. Should the mother or the doctor be prosecuted for manslaughter if they remove it? Maybe it would be fairer to prosecute the embryo. If the fertilized egg is a person, isn't that person trying to commit murder-suicide?
8. What about freezing fertilized embryos? Would that be allowed? And why? If you're freezing an embryo indefinitely, isn't that effectively imprisoning it? We don't freeze people.
9. If a doctor doesn't take all possible steps to stop a miscarriage, would that be manslaughter?
10. How would you determine the date of conception?
11. If a woman eats food contaminated by Listeria and miscarries, could the agribusiness be prosecuted for murder?
12. If you move to Mississippi from another state, would you legally be a year older?
13. How would it affect the census?

 

[Bestbank Tiger]

Some musings on the possible unintended implications of this:

I would support 1, 3, and 6.

As far as 9 and 11, civil liability should take care of that.

 

[madviking]

I'm still supportive of an amendment to sink Mississippi in the ocean.

 

[Cutlass]

Why the ocean? We have a perfectly good world class river right there with coincidentally the same name. And it wants to flood from time to time in any case.

 

[Lord of Elves]

Media says that some people people oppose hypothetical amendment and state their reasons, and that's bias?

What's biased is that these communo-fascist atheist hippy mass murderers want to kill your children.