Court: Fetal rights each nation's choice

BRUSSELS -- Europe's top human rights court rejected an appeal yesterday to grant full human rights to a fetus, saying that was a matter for national governments to decide.

Meeting in Strasbourg, France, the European Court of Human Rights said it could not rule on the case of a French woman who had to have an abortion after a doctor's mistake.

Thi-Nho Vo complained that France had violated the right to life of her unborn child, after French courts refused to convict the doctor of involuntary homicide.

Vo's lawyers referred to Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights guaranteeing the right to life.

However, the 17-judge panel said there was no consensus among nations that have ratified the convention on when right to life begins.

In a 14-2 decision that reflected deep differences over abortion across the continent, the European Court concluded it ''was neither desirable, nor even possible" to answer the question whether an unborn child was a person. The presiding judge did not cast a vote.

Vo's lawyer, Bruno Le Griel, said the court avoided a decision on whether the article of the convention was applicable.

The court did say Vo could bring a negligence suit against the doctor in French courts, with a fair prospect of success.

''Such an action would have enabled the applicant to prove the doctor's medical negligence and to obtain full redress for the resulting damage," it said. Le Griel said he had not decided whether to file a civil case against the doctor.

The decision was welcomed by an abortion rights group that had warned that accepting a right to life for a fetus could make abortions illegal in all 45 countries recognizing the court's jurisdiction.

''This was obviously a tragic individual case, but we are pleased that the judges have ruled to reject the applicant's case," said Anne Weyman, chief executive of the London-based Family Planning Association.

According to court documents, Vo, 36, a French national who lives in Bourg-en-Bresse, France, went to a hospital in Lyons on Nov. 21, 1991, for an exam when she was six months pregnant.

On the same day, another woman of Vietnamese origin with the same last name was due to have a contraceptive device removed from her uterus.

Vo did not speak French, and her gynecologist mistook her for the other woman. He pierced her amniotic sac, making an abortion necessary.