I am given to believe Lara Dimitrijevic (January 19) disdains the epithet “two-legged incubator” because that contemptible term (of her own choice) recalls the pro-choice movement’s mantra that a woman can do as she pleases with her body.
On the other hand, this latest blogger’s renowned legal mind should be aware that the simplest of matters can – even quite unexpectedly – be thrust into the deep seas of fiduciary duties, in this case the duty towards a foetus. It is from this point of view that I ask her to kindly consider adopting a more appropriate term.
In 2003, a gentleman and his unborn baby (a foetus) obtained an injunction against a deportation order of the expectant mother who expressed her intention to abort as soon as she was repatriated in her home country where abortion was legal. This stop order was condemned by many professed feminists, locally and abroad, not least by ‘Women on Waves’.
The proceedings were resolved extra-judicially but readers will certainly agree that the pro-choice movement’s argument that every woman has a “right” to do as she pleases with her body – even abort a foetus – does not appear to be so absolute after all.
There are two prima facie points: the right to promote an action implicitly acknowledged in favour of the ‘mere’ foetus acting through the father in his stated capacity and the fact that the father was in effect telling the woman what not to do with her body, precisely because she was pregnant with his child.
In 2015, another court concluded inter alia that our law expressly recognises the legal capacity of the foetus to inherit.
These legal pronouncements confirm a foetus already enjoys an increasing array of enforceable civil rights in Malta.
As an individual, the woman is perfectly free to do whatever she likes but once she is pregnant (a fiduciary towards the foetus), matters would obviously and immediately take a turn.
I sincerely hope next time she blogs, Dimitrijevic will be using a better-chosen epithet to describe the fiduciary who has natural and legal obligations towards the foetus’s expectancy to live the ups and downs of life.