What is feticide?

• A. Killing of a newborn
• B. Killing of a fetus
• C. Aborting a fetus
• D. Killing of a pregnant woman

Answer: (B)

Feticide is the act that results in the death of a fetus while it is still in the womb. This focuses on the fetus’s death, not the mother or the newborn. It’s different from killing a newborn (that would be infanticide or neonaticide), and it’s not the same as abortion, which is the lawful termination of a pregnancy. It also isn’t about harming a pregnant woman herself; that would be homicide of the woman. So the term specifically describes the killing of a fetus.