CONJOINED TWINS AS PERSONS THAT CAN BE VICTIMS OF HOMICIDE

Extract

I. INTRODUCTION

In England and Australia, only beings that are persons in the eyes of the law can be the victims of homicide. Judges and legislatures in both countries have wrestled with the concept of personhood in the context of abortion and injury of foetuses prior to birth. The focus of this debate has been on what stage in development from conception onwards an embryo or foetus becomes a person that can be the victim of homicide—the ‘when’. The question of ‘what’, i.e. the qualities or features a being¹ needs to display in order to be regarded as a person, has received scant judicial attention. It has been discussed in the context of intellectual property² but rarely in homicide cases. However, this issue is squarely on the table in some cases where conjoined twins are separated and one twin is deformed or incomplete and will die during the surgery. These cases present a range of challenges for the criminal law, not the least of which is determining which twins can be victims of homicide.