Murder or Medical Procedure?

In my humor blog, Almost the Truth, there is a recurring feature called "Almost the News," where I quote actual headlines and then skewer their intent with my twisted perspective on word meaning and syntax. (You can open the latest example in a new window by clicking here.) Because of this, I tend to scan the newspaper headlines frequently...and because of that, I recently found the following Associated Press piece (PG Warning...this is slightly graphic):

Woman Convicted In Fetus Abduction

A Milwaukee woman who confessed to trying to steal a baby by attacking a pregnant woman and slicing out her full-term fetus was convicted Thursday of killing them both.

Jurors deliberated for less than two hours before finding [the woman] guilty of two counts of first-degree intentional homicide in the October 2011 deaths of the mother and fetus. [She] faces a mandatory life sentence...though the judge could allow for the possibility of parole.

A key piece of evidence during the trial was a videotaped police interview in which [the defendant] described her attack.... She told investigators she was desperate to have a son, that she had faked a pregnancy, and that she devised a plan to steal an unborn baby as her supposed due date approached.

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Apparently, one's intent is of utmost importance when it comes to matters of ending a human life. (For more on the humanity of the pre-born, see my previous post, On Abortion.) If a person is selfishly wanting a child but inadvertently kills it, that is homicide. But if a person is being paid by the mother to kill the child on purpose, that is a legally-defensible constitutional right.

Truth is...intentionally taking a human life, no matter what his or her size, level of development, environment, or degree of dependency, is taking a human life.