Fetal crimes

The article devoted to the fetal crime, an act committed against a child who is conceived but not yet born. The authors consider issues of differentiation of separate concepts, including “conceptus”, “embryo”, “fetus”, “unborn child”. The authors analyze the current Russian criminal legislation and foreign experience (Germany, Poland, USA) in creating protection models of conceived but unborn children. The authors propose to equate the legal protection of fetuses capable of independent development outside the mother’s body with the protection of human life. In all other cases, actions against unborn children should be regarded as violations of the constitutional rights of the parents. The authors suggest to introduce several offences in relation to embryos (conceptus), in particular: (1) the theft of a cryopreserved human embryo intended for transfer to the mother’s body; (2) the intentional destruction of a cryopreserved human embryo intended for transfer to the mother’s body; (3) the intentional substitution of a human embryo during its transfer to the mother’s body; (4) violation of the rules of preparation, storage, transportation and thawing of cryopreserved human embryos intended for transfer to the mother’s body, resulting in the negligent death of the embryo.