Life and Death and Abortion

George Will

Is it legal to kill an unborn child? Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

Antonio Pena and Jaclyn Kurr of Michigan were a turbulent pair...[Pena] twice punched [Kurr] in the stomach...When Pena seemed about to punch her again, she stabbed him in the chest, fatally.

Convicted of voluntary manslaughter, Kurr was sentenced as a habitual offender to five to 20 years' imprisonment. The trial judge denied her request that the jury be instructed that she had a right to use deadly force in "defense of others,'' namely her babies.

The judge ruled that a fetus under 22 weeks old is not "viable," meaning not capable of surviving outside the mother's womb...But a Michigan court of appeals disagrees.

Read the entire editorial on the TownHall.com website.