Posted 12:03 PM by Robert

Animal and Abortion Rights

There is, of course, much controversy about whether a fetus should be considered a "person" - especially in the arena of abortion rights. However, it seems inescapable that a fetus is at least an "animal."

So what effect - if any - will the recent German inclusion of a provision in that country's constitution requiring legal and judicial respect for the rights of animals have on German abortion policies? The provision supposedly requires courts to balance the rights of animals against other (human) social needs. That would, at a minimum, seem to be inconsistent with the Roe v. Wade principle that abortion decisions in the first trimester are solely a matter between a woman and her doctor - at least when the means of abortion is painful to the fetus.