# Can child rape victims be forced to mother their children? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 26, 2018, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-child-rape-victims-be-forced-to-mother-their-children/820283 "2018-08-26T01:18:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![postpic200](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@postpic200](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postpic200)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2018, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-child-rape-victims-be-forced-to-mother-their-children/820283/101 "2018-09-08T13:23:05Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > So what? People argue that the death penalty and hospitals removing life support against parents’ wishes like in the cases of Alfie Evans and Charlie Gard are murder too, but all are also legal. Most people throwing around the word murder mean in a moral sense, not a legal one. Morals are not black and white. What one person see’s as murder, another would see it as a kindness. That’s why we have laws. So murder is defined as an unlawful killing, note unlawful. In the case of the death penalty the person wasn’t murdered, but killed. In the other two cases, professional a number of them, said there was no hope of survival. Basically it was cruel to continue, and the MORAL, thing to do was allow nature to take its course. The use of the word murder, has legal meaning, where as they killed someone doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2018, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-child-rape-victims-be-forced-to-mother-their-children/820283/102 "2018-09-08T21:35:31Z")
I’d like to weigh in as a Jew (which makes me wonder why I’m on the SDMB on Shabbos). About the time I became Bar Mitzvah, I asked Rabbi Klears (may his memory be a blessing) whether abortion was murder. He cited a passage that says if somebody assaults a pregnant women and she miscarries as a result it is NOT murder. Under Jewish law, an embryo, zygote, fetus etc is not a person but a _potential_ person. In the years since, I’ve learned that in Jewish folklore a fetus has no soul. The soul descends from heaven (from a hall of souls called the Guff) and enters the body when the baby is born. (I dunno what’s supposed to happen in the event of c-section. I suspect Maimonides, doctor as well as scholar, addressed this). This bit of legend also pops up in the Demi Moore film Seventh Sign. Oh, I’d also like to point out that the proper translation of the Commandment is NOT “thou shalt not kill”. It is “Thou shalt not commit murder”. There are many circumstances when killing is acceptable under Jewish law.,OTTOMH one sage said “If somebody comes to kill you, kill them first.” ---
**Author:** ![Mumberthax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ea5d25/32.png) [@Mumberthax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mumberthax)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2018, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-child-rape-victims-be-forced-to-mother-their-children/820283/103 "2018-09-13T15:17:54Z")
> [@Contemplation](#): > > For example, if a 12-year-old girl were to be impregnated, and her family wanted to keep new child, would she be forced into motherhood? > The victim, in this case, would be too young to put her baby up for adoption or safe-haven against her parent’s or rapists consent. She is also too young for abortion. Not young enough to be a mother though. She would likely be legally responsible for the wellbeing of her child. > > On the flipside. No child should be punished for the actions of their father (a rapist), and it would also seem cruel if the baby’s grandparents had no say in the matter. > > This could be an interesting issue in American laws. This is one of those really messy cases that can only be decided on a case-by-case, no-precedent basis. There’d need to be a hearing first, with everyone involved being heard out by a fair and impartial judge. Said judge would make the decision on the child’s pregnancy. Oh, yeah…am I the only one on here who is severely creeped out by this question? Damn. :eek: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-child-rape-victims-be-forced-to-mother-their-children/820283.md?page=5)