Foetal homicide debate back in spotlight

The case of a Colorado woman accused of cutting open the belly of a pregnant woman and removing her baby girl is reviving the highly-charged debate over when a foetus can legally be considered a human being.

In the past two years, Colorado twice rejected efforts to make the death of a foetus a homicide. The Democratic-led Legislature voted down a bill in 2013, and 65% of voters rejected a ballot measure last year that would have granted legal rights to unborn foetuses, the third rejection of a “personhood measure.”

That leaves the state as one of 12 without a law allowing homicide charges in the violent deaths of foetuses — and the fate of Dynel Lane up in the air. Authorities say Lane lured a woman who was nearly eight months pregnant to her home this week by advertising baby clothes on Craigslist. Lane is accused of stabbing the stranger in the belly and removing the foetus.