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Originally Posted by Stephen
For the sake of debate how would people view the actions of someone who slipped a drug into a pregnant woman's drink that caused her to miscarry? How important is the life that was wrongfully taken from her and how does it vary from the importance of an unwanted foetus? I think (though could be wrong) that it isn't considered murder legally. Does the fact that another foetus is unwanted make it any less valuable? It certainly wouldn't be justifiable homicide if a mother killed her unwanted children once they were born.
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I think if you are pro-choice, you recognize that while we're talking about something like a 3 month or less old fetus, how important it is is ultimately up to the mother. Society doesn't have to place worth on and "invest" in that fetus just yet. If you, as an observer, do place worth in the fetus, you still respect the mother's decision and the worth she places in it. In other words, it's her business and her choice.
If someone causes someone else to miscarry, that is of course a horrible crime. Your example with poison is a little unusual, but I guess miscarriages happening due to violence (like punches or kicks to the stomach) happen now and then. I think causing miscarriage, however awful that crime is, should not be legally regarded the same as homicide. That is it should not be legally equivalent to killing f.ex a healthy adult human being.
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The murder of a fetus would likely also entail the murder of the idea of who that person could be. The parent(s) may have fallen in love with the person they thought the fetus might become. But the law should stick to the facts and the events that took place, not on ideas or assumptions regarding what could've been.