{"id":442,"date":"2010-06-04T09:35:20","date_gmt":"2010-06-04T08:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/?p=442"},"modified":"2010-06-04T09:55:23","modified_gmt":"2010-06-04T08:55:23","slug":"brazil-nuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/06\/04\/brazil-nuts\/","title":{"rendered":"Brazil Nuts?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Human Rights Watch is reporting<\/a> that Brazil is in the process of formulating a law that will give “‘absolute priority’ to the rights of the fertilized ovum”.<\/p>\n

The proposed bill would require any act or omission that could in any way have a negative impact on a fertilized ovum to be considered\u00a0 illegal. The bill was voted favorably out of the Family and Social Security Commission of the Brazilian House of Representatives this month.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For the record, the Centre for Reproductive Rights gives a slightly different exposition<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The proposed measure imposes a duty on the family, society and the state to guarantee, with \u201cabsolute priority,\u201d rights to life, health, development, honor, dignity, respect, liberty, and family to the \u201cunborn.\u201d The draft bill is intended to criminalize any act that intentionally causes death or harms the fetus, and any statement that \u201cpromotes\u201d abortion, as well as the freezing, manipulation or use of the \u201cunborn\u201d as material for experimentation. The legislation was approved in the Health and Social Security Commission of the Congress last week.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Irrespective of what the Bill actually says – and, sadly, neither HRW nor the CRR provides a link – it would seem on the face of it to criminalise a whole raft of activities that a woman could undertake.\u00a0 Hell, taking a couple of ibuprofen could conceivably have a detrimental effect, so would be caught under HRW’s understanding of the bill.\u00a0 It’s not likely, but that seems to be beside the point.<\/p>\n

I understand why people want to protect the life and welfare of the foetus; I’ve said before that I’d be surprised if anyone<\/em> seriously denied that doing so is admirable, all else being equal.\u00a0 I can even see the coherence of a claim that people – de facto<\/em> women – have a special responsibility to the foetus inside them.\u00a0 I think I’d disagree with most, if not all, of the substance of this, and any subsequent claim –\u00a0 but the argument isn’t utterly nuts: I’m willing to accept a stewardship argument in relation to (say) the environment or pets, and I could see how stewardship of one non-person is roughly equivalent to stewardship of another.<\/p>\n

The moral question here would concern the point at which the protection of the foetus is trumped by other considerations.\u00a0 Pro-lifers set the bar high; pro-choicers set it low.\u00a0 In respect of women’s decisions about pregnancy, I’m tempted to side with those who set the bar quite low; just about anything would count as an acceptable reason to end the pregnancy.\u00a0 Still, I can see how others might disagree and remain sane.\u00a0 That’s fair enough.\u00a0 I understand the shape of that debate.<\/p>\n

However, to say that the foetus has an absolute priority seems to me to go way beyond that.\u00a0 After all, there comes a point where the stewardship of a given non-person is just onerous by any reasonable standard; and at that point, it’s perfectly acceptable to relinquish the putative “duty”.\u00a0 But you shoot out of the other side of this debate about the sufficient reason to justify a termination once you start claiming that the claims of a fully formed person are always<\/em> trumped by the claims of a mere foetus – claims that, to be sure, it has to have made for it.\u00a0 To take that line seems to be to ignore wholly the strongest pro-life claim, and plump staight into insanity.<\/p>\n

I’ll repeat that: I find it very hard to see how anyone sane could claim that the foetus is always<\/em> more important than the person in whose body it currently resides.\u00a0 I just don’t get it. \u00a0Maybe someone could explain that to me.<\/p>\n

And then to write into law that it’s not just its life, but its honour<\/em> and liberty <\/em>that has absolute protection… \u00a0Honour and liberty in a foetus<\/em>? \u00a0Insanity to the power of three.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Human Rights Watch is reporting that Brazil is in the process of formulating a law that will give “‘absolute priority’ to the rights of the fertilized ovum”. The proposed bill would require any act or omission that could in any way have a negative impact on a fertilized ovum to be considered\u00a0 illegal. The bill […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[591,475],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-and-death","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nBrazil Nuts? - Journal of Medical Ethics blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/06\/04\/brazil-nuts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Brazil Nuts? - Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Human Rights Watch is reporting that Brazil is in the process of formulating a law that will give “‘absolute priority’ to the rights of the fertilized ovum”. The proposed bill would require any act or omission that could in any way have a negative impact on a fertilized ovum to be considered\u00a0 illegal. 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