Abortee. The woman upon whom an abortion is performed.

Abortifacient. Drug or medicine capable of, or used for, producing an abortion.

Abortion. The spontaneous or artificially induced expulsion of an embryo or fetus. As used in legal context, usually refers to induced abortion. For law relating to abortion see Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 93 S.Ct. 705, 35 L.Ed.2d 147; Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, 492 U.S. 490, 109 S.Ct. 3040, 106 L.Ed.2d 410. See also Viability; Viable Child.

Abortionist. One who performs abortions.

Child; Children. Progeny; offspring of parentage. Unborn or recently born human being. Wilson v. Weaver, 358 F.Supp. 1147, 1154. . . . .
Rights of unborn child. The rights of an unborn child are recognized in various different legal contexts; e.g. in criminal law, murder includes the unlawful killing of a fetus (Cal.Penal Code §187), and the law of property considers the unborn child in being for all purposes which are to its benefit, such as taking by will or decent. After its birth, it has been held that it may maintain a statutory cause of action for the wrongful death of the parent. In addition, the child, if born alive, is permitted to maintain a cause of action for the consequences of prenatal injuries and if he dies from such injuries after birth an action will lie for his wrongful death. While certain states have allowed recovery even though the injury occurred during the early weeks of pregnancy when the child was neither viable nor quick, Sinkler v. Kneale, 401 Pa. 267, 164 A.2d 93: Smith v. Brennan, 31 N.J. 353, 157 A.2d 497, other states require that the fetus be viable before a civil damage action can be brought on behalf of the unborn child. See, Viable child; Wrongful birth; Wrongful conception; Wrongful life.

En ventre sa mere. L.Fr. In its mother's womb. A term descriptive of an unborn child. For some purposes the law regards an infant en ventre as in being. It may take a legacy; have a guardian; an estate may be limited to its use, etc. 1 Bl.Comm. 130. LaBlue v. Specker, 358 Mich. 558, 100 N.W.2d 445, 447.

Fetal death. The death of a child not yet born. Death in utero of a fetus weighing 500 grams or more. This weight corresponds roughly to a fetus of twenty weeks or more (gestational age), i.e. a viable fetus.
Death is defined in the following context: after expulsion, the fetus does not breathe or show any other evidence of life , such as beating of the heart , pulsation of the umbilical cord, or definite movement of the voluntary muscles.

Feticide. Destruction of the fetus; the act by which criminal abortion is produced. The killing of an unborn child. State v. Horne, 282 S.C. 444, 319 S.E.2d 703, 704. See Abortion: Prolicide.

Fetus. An unborn child. The unborn offspring of any viviparous animal; specifically the unborn offspring of the post embryonic period after major structures have been outlined (in man from seven or eight weeks after fertilization until birth.)

Foetus. An unborn child. An infant in ventre sa mere.

Privacy, right of. The right to be let alone; the right to be free from unwarranted publicity; and right to live without unwarranted interference by the public in matters with which the public is not necessarily concerned. . . .

Prolicide. A word used to designate the destruction of human offspring. Jurists divide the subject into feticide, or the destruction of the fetus in utero, and infanticide, or the destruction of a new-born infant. See also Abortion.

Quick child. One that has developed so that it moves within the mother's womb. State v. Timm, 244 Wis. 508, 12 N.W.2d 670, 671. See also Quickening; Viable child.

Quickening. The first motion of the fetus in the womb felt by the mother, occurring usually about the middle of the term of pregnancy.

Quick with child. Having conceived.

Substantive Due Process. Doctrine that due process clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution require legislation to be fair and reasonable in content as well as application. Such may be broadly defined as the constitutional guarantee that no person shal be arbitrarily deprived of life, liberty or property. The essence of substantive due process is protection from arbitrary and unreasonable action. Jeffries v. Turkey Run Consolidated School Dist., C.A.Ind., 492 F.2d 1, 3. See Due process of law.

Unborn child. The individual human life in existence and developing prior to birth.
A child not yet born at the happening of an event. A child not yet born at the time of an injury to his mother which causes the child to suffer an injury may recover in most jurisdictions after birth if the child were viable in his mother's womb at the time of the defendant's wrongdoing. In the majority of states, injuries sustained by a viable, unborn child which was the cause of the child's death may form the basis of a wrongful death action brought by the estate of the stillborn child. Amadio v. Levin, 509 Pa. 199, 501 A.2d 1085, 1087.
See also Child; Viable child; Wrongful death statutes.

Viability. Capability of living. A term used to denote the power a new-born child possesses of continuing its independent existence. That stage of fetal development when the life of the unborn child may be continued indefinitely outside the womb by natural or artificial life-supportive systems. The constitutionality of this statutory definition (V.A.M.S. (Mo.), §188.015) was upheld in Planned Parenthood of Central Mo. v. Danforth, 428 U.S. 52, 96 S.Ct. 2831, 49 L.Ed.2d 788.
For purposes of abortion regulation, viability is reached when, in the judgment of the attending physical on the particular facts of the case before him, there is a reasonable likelihood of the fetus' sustained survival outside the womb, with or without artificial support. Colautti v. Franklin, 439 U.S. 379, 388, 99 S.Ct. 675, 682, 58 L.Ed.2d 596. See also Viable; Viable child.

Viable. Livable; having the appearance of being able to live; capable of life. This term is applied to a newly born infant, and especially to one prematurely born, which is not only born alive, but in such a state of organic development as to make possible the continuance of its life. See Viability; Viable child.

Viable child. Unborn child who is capable of independent existence outside of his or her mother's womb, Libbee v. Permanente Clinic, 268 Or. 258, 518 P.2d 636, 637; even if only in an incubator, Sylvia v. Gobielle, 101 R.I. 76, 220 A.2d 222, 223. In most states a viable unborn child is considered a person under the wrongful death statute, e.g., DiDonato v. Wortman, 320 N.C. 423, 358 S.E.2d 489, and in some states is considered to be a person under the homicide statute, e.g., Commonwealth v, Cass, 392 Mass. 799, 467 N.E.2d 1324. See also Child (Rights of unborn child); Unborn child; Viability; Wrongful death statutes.