Homicide et enfant à naître : une occasion manquée…

The ruling of June 30, 1999 was one of the first significant rulings given by the French Supreme Court with regard to the criminalization of unintentional feticide. The question posed essentially asked whether a physician who committed a fault leading to the death of a fetus could be accused of manslaughter, which is a criminal offense under Article 221-6 of the French Criminal Code? The Court ruled not to describe this as feticide. It upheld this position in several subsequent rulings, considering that the unborn child, even when viable, was not a human being equipped with a legal personality. Early on, the French doctrine displayed shock at the fact that no criminal offense was recognized and, in its majority, it condemned the Supreme Court's position, both on legal arguments and extra-legal arguments. Case law was stable until February 4, 2014, when a criminal court sentenced a motorist for the manslaughter of a six-month old fetus, following its death in utero. On appeal, one year later, the Court ultimately upheld the position of the French Supreme Court.