When does a fetus become a newborn baby? HHS regulation says not until he is viable
Every now and then over the past 28 years since Roe v. Wade, a story emerges about tiny newborn babies being left to die in hospitals, abandoned by parents unwilling to deal with their physical problems, and uncared for by medical personnel caught between their own consciences and hospital rules.
The famous Baby Doe case comes to mind. In that case, which took place in Bloomington, Indiana, a baby was born on April 9, 1982 with Down syndrome and his parents refused to allow a doctor to correct a defect in the esophagus that prevented eating. He died of starvation on April 15, 1982. Baby Doe was left to die, unattended and deprived of even water to moisten his little eyes.
Protests from pro-life groups, Congressman Henry Hyde and others led to an executive order, issued by President Reagan, notifying hospitals receiving federal aid that they may lose their funding if they withheld food and medical treatment from handicapped babies. Despite efforts by the Reagan Administration to prevent more abuses of this type, the U.S.
Supreme Court, in a 5-3 decision, struck down a protective regulation that had been issued by HHS.
The extent of protection for the children was left undefined.
Jill Stanek, a labor and delivery nurse at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Illinois, briefed Capitol Hill staffers and others on her experience with her hospital's policy of performing live birth abortions in which labor is induced, the baby is delivered prematurely, sometimes alive, and then left to die.
The reaction of most people when they hear stories like these is to say, "Wait a minute! Once a baby is born, he's a citizen of the United States, right? He's protected under the Constitution, right?" Wrong.
How are we wrong? Why is the practice of infanticide legitimized in America? The answer may lie, at least in part, with a
quarter-century-old regulation established by the Department of Health and Human Services (then known as the Department of Health, Education and Welfare) in 1975. It came to light during the review by the new Bush administration of thousands of Clinton-imposed federal regulations issued in the final days of his presidency.
The regulation in question, a final rule of the Department of HHS number 45 CFR Part 46, RIN 0925-AA14 is found in the January 17, 2001 issue of the Federal Register, Volume 66, Number 11. Initially adopted in 1975, it was revised and, if not for the Bush 60-day-hold, would have become effective on March 19, 2001.
HHS regulates research involving human subjects through regulations like the one in question, which pertains to research involving fetuses
