LogFAQs > #966652692

"I think it's more of a question of bodily autonomy than anything else. Even if we considered the fetus to be legally equivalent to a person, that wouldn't give it the right to use the woman's bodily resources without her permission. A person cannot be compelled to do so little as donate bone marrow to save the life of another born, sentient human (McFall vs. Shimp, 1978) because the right to bodily sovereignty is absolute. Even a corpse cannot have its organs removed without consent from the person it once was (given before their death, obviously) or their heirs.

Therefore, there is no legal precedent to force a woman to gestate a fetus. That would reduce her status to lower than that of a corpse and give said fetus rights that it would lose at birth."

-Sailor Mouth, 2002