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Rights of the Unborn Debated After Supreme Court Ruling The latest ruling in a case involving the death of a two-day old infant came to a head this month after the Hawaii State Supreme Court ruled that an "unborn child is not a person." The ruling stemmed from a case involving prenatal child abuse inflicted upon an unborn fetus while the mother was abusing crystal methamphetamine up to a few days before the baby was born. Baby Treyson died 2 days after he was born. The City Medical examiner ruled that the cause of death was due to crystal meth poisoning. The mother later admitted that she smoked "ice" while pregnant even up to the day of the baby's delivery. She was charged with killing her baby by smoking ice while pregnant and pleaded no contest to manslaughter. The mother got 10 years of probation with no jail time. The case was later appealed and the Hawaii Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the case and issued the ruling yesterday, resulting in the overturn of the Mom's conviction. The ruling has triggered debate in the community and in the halls of the State Legislature. I spoke to the Honolulu Star-Bulletin stating that "both the House and State judiciary chairpersons have said they would not support legislation to protect the unborn, so any bill would not get very far." I plan to look at victims' rights and whether there can be limited legislation to protect the unborn. Our Senate Minority Research office is working on this now. I believe unborn fetuses have the same rights to exist as everyone else (already born). If something happens to any fetus under any circumstance, by this ruling there could be no prosecution in any circumstance. An attack on the fetus is punishable in other jurisdictions. The way I read the Supreme Court decision is there would be no possibility of prosecution. Taken from the Kuliuou Neighborhood Board Report #2, 12-2005
 
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