PUBLICATION:             WINNIPEG FREE PRESS 

DATE :                          MON MAR.01,2004 

PAGE :                         B6 

CLASS :                       City 

BYLINE :                       Mike McIntyre

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Homicide doesn't apply to the unborn

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Officially, six Manitobans have died by homicide so far this year. But in the eyes of some, the real number of victims is eight.

The pregnancies of two young women -- one five months along, the other 10 weeks -- ended suddenly with their gruesome deaths.

However, the fact two fetuses lost their chance at life will not be recognized by additional charges being laid against the alleged killers. In fact, the violent "expiration" of the pregnancies won't even register as a crime statistic.

Such is the law in Canada, where a fetus -- even if full term -- has no legal standing.

Canada adheres to the traditional common-law rule that only persons have rights and that the fetus, whatever its stage of gestation, is not a person.

"It is an absolute tragedy. These were babies, which otherwise were going to be born alive," said Dr. Charlie Ferguson, head of the child-protection centre at Children's Hospital.

Ferguson said the abortion debate shouldn't get mixed up with this issue, because of the fact the mother presumably had every intention of giving birth before her demise.

"The idea of pregnant women being killed is about as gruesome as a crime as you can get, the idea two people are being killed but only one is recognized in law," he said.

One would-be mother died last month in St. Theresa Point, an isolated Cree community about 600 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg.

Her throat was slit, her body buried beneath snow in a wooded area just outside the reserve. She was found four days after her frantic family reported her missing.

The girl was only 14 years old, her baby due to be born in early summer. She can't be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act because her alleged killer is only 15. He is charged with second-degree murder.

The other case occurred in Winnipeg.

Already the mother of a teenage girl, Veronica Cropp had just recently found out she was pregnant for a second time. The baby would be born in the fall.

Cropp, 33, died on Valentine's Day inside a Thompson Drive home. Police say she had been strangled.

Her estranged spouse -- and the father of the unborn child -- has been charged with second-degree murder. The man, Glenn Thordarson, was under court order at the time to have no contact with Cropp.

The Canadian Criminal Code states a child becomes a person only "when it has completely proceeded, in a living state, from the body of the mother."

"A person commits homicide when he causes injury to a child before or during its birth as a result of which the child dies after becoming a human being," the code reads.

A murder charge can be laid if an injury is inflicted on a fetus, which is born but later dies. A Manitoba woman was convicted of manslaughter in 1987 for stabbing a woman who was six months pregnant.

The victim went into premature labour and delivered a living child, who died about 20 minutes after birth.

In California, Scott Peterson has been charged with two counts of murder stemming from the death of his wife, Laci, and their unborn child.

Laci -- who was eight months pregnant when she went missing Christmas Eve 2002 -- was found last year in San Francisco Bay.

California changed its law in 1970 to say killing of a fetus at least seven weeks gestation is murder. Abortion is excluded from prosecution.

The change in law came after a man deliberately killed his ex-wife's fetus by kneeing her in the stomach. The fetus, approximately 36 weeks gestation, was delivered stillborn with a fractured skull.

The Supreme Court of California later dismissed the murder charge because the baby was born dead. State legislators reacted by creating a new fetal homicide statute.

Some women's rights groups in the United States have argued that the notion of fetal homicide could undermine legal access to abortion.

Pro-life groups have indicated they intend to use the Peterson case to attack Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.

It's unlikely changes will come to Canada soon.

"Until something happens to get a case back before the Supreme Court of Canada, this is what the law of the land is," said prosecutor Ken Champagne, who works in Manitoba's domestic violence branch.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca