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ABSTRACT
This paper is based on the new understanding of children’s health relating to recent science regarding the work of Philip Landrigan and Ruth Etzel on children’s environmental health. The main concern is the presence of chemical exposures that result in grave harms from birth to early childhood. I argue that these discoveries cast a different light on the question of immunity for prenatal harms, and the right to healthy development from before birth.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Note on contributor
Laura Westra has a Ph.D. in philosophy (University of Toronto), and a second one in jurisprudence from Osgoode Hall Law School. She is the founder and Leader of the Global Ecological Integrity Group for the past 25 years. She works as a sessional instructor for the University of Windsor, and has taught at several Italian universities (Milan, Trento) and is currently visiting professor at the University of Parma. She is the editor and author of 38 books, two of which are in press, and over 90 articles and chapters in books.
Notes
1 State of the Science of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals 2012: Summary for Decision-Makers, An assessment of the state of the science of endocrine disruptors prepared by a group of experts for the United Nations Environment Programme and World Health Organization, edited by Åke Bergman, Jerrold J. Heindel, Susan Jobling, Karen A. Kidd, and R. Thomas Zoeller (WHO/UNEP, 2013).
2 Philippe Grandjean, Only One Chance To Develop A Brain (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013); Philip Landrigan and Ruth Etzel, eds., Textbook of Children’s Environmental Health (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013).
3 Laura Westra, Child Law (Heidelberg: Springer, 2014).
4 Landrigan and Etzel, Textbook, 3.
5 Landrigan and Etzel, Textbook, 4.
6 R.W. Miller, ‘How Environmental Hazards in Childhood have been Discovered: Carcinogens, Teratogens, Neurotoxicants, and Others’, Pediatrics 113 (2004): 945–51.
7 W. Lens, ‘Chemicals and Malformations in Mana’, in Second International Conference on Congenital Malformations, ed. M. Fishbein (New York: International Medical Congress, 1963), 263–71.
8 A. Herbst, M. Hubby, F. Azizi, and M.M. Makiki, ‘Reproductive and Gynaecological Surgical Experience in Diethylstilbestrol Exposed Daughters’, American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology 141, no. ix (1981): 1019–28.
9 Landrigan and Etzel, Textbook, 29.
10 ibid.
11 Westra, Child Law, ch. 4.
12 ibid.
13 Laura Westra, Revolt Against Authority (Leiden: Brill, 2014), ch. 6.
14 Laura Westra, The Supranational Corporation (Leiden: Brill, 2013), 65–70.
15 W. Gillis, ‘A Short Life Yet Murder Charge Still Possible’, The Toronto Star, June 7, 2016, pp. Al, A4.
16 Gillis, ‘A Short Life’, A4.
17 ibid.
18 ibid.
19 Mike Shorten, ‘Woman Killed Who Was 7 Months Pregnant, but Canada says her Unborn Baby Molly Isn’t a Human Being’, November 2, 2015, www.lifenews.com/2015/02/11/woman-killed-who-was-7-months-pregnant-but-canada-says-her-unborn-baby-molly-isnt-a-human-being/ (accessed June 8, 2016).
20 L’enfant simplement concu est repute ne chaque fois qu’il s’agit de ses interets: Natalie Massager, Les Droits de l’Enfant à Naitre (Bruylant, Bruxelles: Université Libre de Bruxelles, 1997).
21 Massager, Les Droits.
22 Massager, Les Droits, 3.
23 Massager, Les Droits, 4.
24 Alan Gewirth, Human Rights: Essays on Justification and Applications (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1982).
25 Gewirth, Human Rights, 5.
26 Gewirth, Human Rights, 7.
27 Gewirth, Human Rights, 5.
28 Christian Atias, ‘Les personnes – les incapacités’, Droit Civil PUF 14, no. 4 (1985).
29 Massager, Les Droits, 9.
30 L. Nemer, L. Licari and G. Tamburlini, eds. Children’s Health and the Environment (Copenhagen: World Health Organization, Regional Office for Europe, 2005).
31 Francis Meyer, ‘La protection juridique de la vie anténatale’, Revue du Droit, Sanitaire et Sociale Oct–Dec (1987): 578.
32 Gérard Mémeteau, ‘Le prélèvement à fins thérapeutiques sur le fœtus de lege ferenda', La Gazette du Palais (1982): 332.
33 Massager, Les Droits, 33: Massager proposed to establish a uniform juridical system which recognises personality (nonconditional) to the conceived infant.
34 Xavier Labbée, ‘L’insemination artificielle pratiquée apres' la mort du donneur’, La Gazette du Palais (1984): 401–4.
35 Thomas M. Murray, ‘Moral Obligations to the Non-yet Born: The Fetus as a Patient’, in Biomedical Ethics, ed. T.A. Mappes and David DeGrazia (Belmont, CA: McGraw Hill, 1996), 464–72.
36 Doc. Parl. Ch.S.O. 1989–1990, No. 1033/1p.11; see also full citation and discussion in Massager, Les Droits, 395.
37 Massager, Les Driots, 44: she suggests that the minor and the preborn both share the need for a third party to express their interests.
38 D. Marquis, ‘Why Abortion is Immoral’, Journal of Philosophy 89 (1989): 183; B. Gordon, ‘The Unborn Plaintiff’, Michigan Law Review 63 (1965): 579.
39 Nemer, Licari and Tamburlini, Children’s Health and the Environment; David Fiddler, International Law and Public Health (Ardsley, NY: Transnational Publishers, 2000); D.T. Wigle, Child Health and the Environment (Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press, 2003).
40 Vo v. France, ECHR, Strasbourg, 8 July, 2004.
41 A criminal offence under Article 319 of the former Criminal Code – which was applicable at the material time – now Article 221-6 of the Criminal Code.
42 A Criminal offence under Article R.40, subparagraph 4, of the former Criminal Code – which was applicable at the material time – now Article R. 625-2 and R.625-4 of the Criminal Code.
43 ibid, 5.
44 ‘another’ within the meaning of Article 221-6 of the Criminal Code.
45 Voluntary Termination of Pregnancy Act of 17 January 1975 (Law no. 75-17).
46 Vo v. France, 7.
47 Vo v. France, 7.
48 Griggs v. Duke Power Co, 401 U.S. 424; Nashville Gas Co. v. Satty, 434 U.S. 136 (1977).
49 42 U.S.C. s. 2000e–(k) (Supp. 1980).
50 429 U.S. 125 (1976).
51 H.R.Rep. No. 948, 95th Cong., 2d Sess. 5, reprinted in U.S. Code Cpng.Ad.News 4749, 4753.
52 Burwell v. Eastern Airlines, Inc., 458 F. Supp.; Hamiss v. Pan Am World Airways, Inc., 437 F. Supp.
53 J.M. Manson, ‘Human and Laboratory Animal Test Systems Available for Detection of Reproductive Failure', Preventive Medicine (1978): 322, 326.
54 D. Westfall, ‘Beyond Abortion: The Potential Reach of the Human Life Amendment', American Journal of Law and Medicine 8, no. 2 (1982): 97–137.
55 29 U.S.C. ss. 651–78 (1976).
56 Clarke D. Forsythe, ‘Homicide of the Unborn Child: The Born Alive Rule and Other Legal Anachronisms’, Valparaiso University Law Review 1, no. 21 (1987): 563–67.
57 Forsythe, ‘Homicide of the Unborn Child’, 567.
58 Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary, 26th ed. (Philadelphia, PA: W.B. Saunders, 1985), 1105; J. Beck, Elements of Medical Jurisprudence, 11th ed. (Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott, 1860), 253.
59 Forsythe, ‘Homicide of the Unborn Child’, 568.
60 Williams Obstetrics, 17th ed., J.A. Pritchard, P.C. MacDonald, and N.F. Gant, eds. (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1985).
61 Forsythe, ‘Homicide of the Unborn Child’, 568.
62 Forsythe, ‘Homicide of the Unborn Child’, 569.
63 A.S. Taylor, Medical Jurisprudence, 7th ed. (London, 1861).
64 Forsythe, ‘Homicide of the Unborn Child’, 575.
65 Pritchard, MacDonald, and Gant, Williams Obstetrics, 267.
66 Commonwealth v. Cass, 392 Mass. 799, 467 N.E. 2d 1324 (1984).
67 Bonbrest v. Katz, 65 F. Supp. 138 (D.D.C. 1946); see also Sinkler v. Kneale, 401 Pa.267,164 A.2d 93 (1960).
68 Forsythe, ‘Homicide of the Unborn Child’, 603.
69 Keeler v. Superior Court of Amador County, 2 Ca1.3d 619,470 P.2d 617 87 Ca1. Rptr. 481 (1970).
70 Commonwealth v. Cass 392 Mass.@ 801, 467 N.E. 2d @1235, 801.
71 Ca1. Penal Code s. 187(a), West Supp. 1986; Minn. Stat. Ann. s.609.266 (1987 Supp.); Minn. Stat. Ann. s.609.266 (1987 Supp.).
72 Watt v. Rama, Supreme Full Court of Victoria; 1971 Vic Lexis 143; Y1972U VR 3531 Dec. 14, 1971.
73 Watt v. Rama , 2.
74 Watt v. Rama, para. 25 (Winneke CJ).
75 Montreal Tramways v. Leveille [1933] 4 DLR 337.
76 U.N.C.R.O.C., 20 November 1989, GA44/25.
77 Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 35 [1973].
78 New Zealand, Children, Young Persons and Their Families Act 1989, s. 2(1).
79 New Zealand, Guardianship Act 1968, s. 7.
80 New Zealand, Crimes Act 1961, ss. 182, 187.
81 Westra, Chi1d Law, ch. 2.