When a clinic owner named Gonzalez came in she cut the umbilical cord with scissors. She then placed the baby in a plastic bag before putting the bag in a trash can. Williams says Gonzalez even knocked the baby off the recliner chair where she had given birth and onto the cold, hard floor. Since the baby's umbilical cord was not clamped she simply bled to death.
It would be malpractice for Dr. Renelique to fail to ensure that licensed personnel would be present when Williams was there at the clinic per his instructions. But, of course, in this class we are not concerned with mere malpractice. We are currently talking about homicide.
Your answers to the following questions are to be submitted to me via email by tomorrow:
1. Should prosecutors file murder charges against Gonzales? If so, what degree of murder? First? Or second?
2. Or should the state file homicide charges against Dr. Renelique? Do his actions constitute misdemeanor manslaughter? Or do they conform to a common law theory of depraved heart murder, a form of murder in the second degree.
3. How will the prosecution prove that the baby was born alive? Can the autopsy alone establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the baby’s lungs were filled with air?
4. Will the defense be allowed to argue that the child would have died anyway? What are the implications of allowing for such an argument? And, finally;
5. Aren’t you glad that this is a hypothetical, and not a real, case?
To be continued …
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