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Lookup NU author(s): Samantha RyanORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
In recent years concern about Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) has intensified, prompting calls for societal action. Pregnant women's consumption of alcohol is increasingly surveilled, public health campaigns now promote abstinence, and in some jurisdictions, prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) resulting in FASD has received criminal sanction. This paper anticipates potential calls to criminalise PAE resulting in FASD by envisioning what such a case might look like. Applying Duff et al's framework for determining whether an act should be criminalised, we draw upon public health and jurisprudential discourses to trace the outline of an argument for framing maternal alcohol consumption causing injury to the child born alive as a public wrong and a crime.1 We show how an ‘in principle’ case may be constructed, but argue that countervailing principles, including women's rights, and practical considerations, tell decisively against criminalisation.
Author(s): Ryan S, Jonas M
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Legal Studies
Year: 2024
Pages: epub ahead of print
Online publication date: 19/11/2024
Acceptance date: 10/10/2024
Date deposited: 09/12/2024
ISSN (print): 0261-3875
ISSN (electronic): 1748-121X
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
URL: https://doi.org/10.1017/lst.2024.36
DOI: 10.1017/lst.2024.36
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