Garth Rattray | Three killed, but only two murdered

The media reported that around 11 p.m. on Tuesday May 24, 2023, there was a double murder along Campbell Avenue in Port Antonio, Portland. Twenty-eight-year-old Shadae Pink was shot in the head, and 23-year-old Keino James was shot in the back. Although Keino, Shadae, and Shadae’s unborn child all died, the police have arrested and charged someone for the murders of Shadae and Keino.

Tragically, Shadae was in an “advanced state of pregnancy”. She was only five days away from delivering her baby. Shadae would certainly have known the sex of her unborn child. She would have been feeling her developing baby push, kick, grow and become stronger. She would have chosen names for her baby. She would have bought baby clothes and baby things in expectation of her newborn’s arrival into the family. She would have spent months imagining hugging her baby, taking care of her baby, feeding her baby, protecting her baby, and watching her baby grow into an adult.

Shadae’s unborn baby was fully developed. By that time, her unborn child was breathing in the amniotic fluid, rehearsing for the time when air would be sucked into the lungs. Her unborn child was opening the eyes, swallowing amniotic fluid and the kidneys were excreting urine. The brain of her full-term unborn baby knew Shadae’s heartbeat and breathing. The skin of her unborn child could feel pain, cold, warmth, and the pressure of Shadae’s comforting womb all around. Having prepared for life outside the protection and sustenance of Shadae’s womb, her unborn child would have easily survived if birth had taken place.

It leads me to wonder how Shadae’s unborn baby felt when suddenly, Shadae’s heart stopped beating and her breathing ceased. How long did the little unborn baby struggle to live, trapped inside a womb, turned tomb. Slowly, with no oxygen to sustain life, that baby suffered and also died because someone murdered its mother.

Yet, according to our laws, all of that is inconsequential. That unborn child was nothing, a non-entity. The unborn child was so non-existent that there was no criminal or misdemeanour charges for the person or persons responsible for its death. Years ago, I found out that a human being is not considered a ‘life in being’ unless and until it takes its first breath and is separated from the umbilical cord.

Some religions consider human life to be so sacred that they prohibit contraception. Practising Roman Catholics are only permitted to use the rhythm method of contraception … it is jokingly dubbed the ‘Vatican roulette’ because it is fraught with errors and is therefore prone to failure.

A fertilised egg is called a zygote. The zygote divides to become a blastocyst. This becomes implanted in the wall of the womb. Then, it develops into an embryo (the phase at which most organs are formed), the placenta and amniotic sac. At about the beginning of the 11th week (after the last menstrual period), the embryo is called a foetus. Jamaica’s Offences Against the Person Act clearly states that any attempt at terminating any pregnancy, by the pregnant woman or anyone assisting her, carries serious penalties. This applies from the earliest stage of pregnancy. Yet, [legally] there were no consequences when a criminal act terminated Shadae’s full-term pregnancy.

Technically, if a 12-year-old girl is violently raped and becomes pregnant, termination of the pregnancy is prohibited even if it will destroy the child. And if a woman has any serious pre-existing medical conditions that preclude her becoming pregnant, termination is also prohibited, even if it will kill the mother (and subsequently, the unborn child). How can our strict anti-termination law be reconciled with giving that same foetus, now fully developed, absolutely no recognition and no protection from being killed by criminals.

PROTECTING WOMEN

I do not agree with willy-nilly terminations of pregnancies, but I am for protecting women from serious harm that a pregnancy may cause. I am also for protecting the unborn child, especially in the late stages of pregnancy. The two are not incongruent.

In the past, when I was vigorously agitating for our laws to be amended to punish criminals who kill pregnant women and their unborn children, there was a disclosure that Jamaica could consider adopting a British law that punishes the criminal [only] if he/she intended to hurt or kill the unborn child. However, Jamaica needs a more robust law that punishes the criminal if he/she directly or indirectly causes the death of a foetus.

With such a law in place, criminals would be charged and punished for murdering unborn children when they are at the third trimester stage of development (from week 27 onwards). And, since terminating a pregnancy at any stage is technically illegal in all circumstances, if criminals cause the loss of any pregnancy, they should be prosecuted for it. Nefarious characters should be made to consider if killing a woman of child-bearing age could end up with their being charged for a double murder.

Interestingly, our laws carry consequences, by way of compensation, for causing the death of unborn farm animals. But killing or causing the death of a full-term unborn human baby is inconsequential. Now, Shadae’s family is left to grieve her loss, and the loss of a child, grandchild, sibling, niece/nephew, and cousin that our laws fail to recognise. Now, Shadae and her baby must be buried.

Garth A. Rattray is a medical doctor with a family practice. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and garthrattray@gmail.com