Edelin, Kenneth C. 1937-

ABORTION DOCTOR

The Case.

Dr. Kenneth C. Edelin was found guilty of manslaughter in Boston on 15 February 1975. He was accused of the death of a male fetus after a legal abortion he performed at the Boston City Hospital on 3 October 1973. The prosecution charged that Dr. Edelin killed the fetus by depriving it of life-sustaining oxygen while it was still in the womb. The prosecution argued that the fetus was old enough to be viable. However, viability was questionable because the gestational age was somewhere between eighteen and twenty-four weeks. The defense maintained that Dr. Edelin could not have committed manslaughter because the fetus was not a person and therefore no person ever existed. Furthermore, the defense maintained, the law had never given rights to the unborn. The fetus never lived and therefore could not have been killed. Dr. Edelin was sentenced to one year's probation and continued to practice at Boston...

[The entire page is 450 words long]

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