Thursday, January 14, 2010

Fetal deaths in DWI crashes - Does the fetus count at a human being?

From Starpress.com in central Indiana on January 6, 2010

INDIANAPOLIS -- Danielle Steinberger's voice shook Tuesday as she told an Indiana Senate committee about losing her unborn son, Drew.

"Our lives were changed in a moment because of the recklessness by another person," said Steinberger, supporting a proposed Indiana law that would allow prosecution of drunken drivers whose actions lead to the death of an unborn child.

Steinberger, of Ohio, was eight months pregnant in 2007 when her car was struck by an intoxicated driver in Richmond.

"I woke up three-and-a-half weeks later to find out we had lost our son," Steinberger recalled.

She spent more than three months in a hospital and two months more in a nursing home after breaking 26 bones.

The drunken driver was transferred to an Ohio hospital and no blood draw was taken that would have allowed for standard prosecution on a DWI charge. The driver was only ticketed for having no insurance.

Ironically in Ohio, it is a felony for an intoxicated driver to cause a crash where a pregnancy is terminated. About 36 states have similar laws, but not Indiana.

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