Lamm: Is it a fetus or a baby?
By Special to The Denver Post
OK, I'm going to be emotional about this one.
My heart goes out to Heather Surovik of Longmont, who lost her fetus in an automobile accident on July 5. It is a tragedy when pregnant women are the victims of crime, heartbreaking and sad for the family and the community. Heather Surovik was due to deliver any day when the accident occurred.
Yet my compassion for the Surovik family quickly turns to anger. Head-swelling anger at the perpetrator of this grievous loss, Gary Sheats.
Sheats, 52, who slammed into Surovik's car, injuring her and killing her fetus, had a blood alcohol level of 0.292, three times the legal limit.
And this was his fifth DUI offense. Yet the "system" never allowed him to be jailed long enough to keep the public safe, or to be treated for his alcoholism intensely enough to cure him.
Since this latest offense caused "bodily harm," Sheats has been charged with several felony counts involving DUI and leaving the scene of an accident. Yet, the maximum sentence on one of these counts is only 12 years. And should he be charged with only a DUI misdemeanor, his maximum jail time is 60 days.
Sheats cannot be charged with murder or even vehicular homicide. Why? Because in Colorado, a fetus does not become a "person" until he or she is born. And only the killing of a "person" is considered a murder or homicide.
That infuriates Surovik's grandfather, Tim Onley. "Our biggest issue is that they are not calling it a baby," Onley told Denver Post reporter Jessica Fender, adding that he hoped to do something to legally designate an unborn fetus a person.
If I were in Onley's shoes, perhaps that is what I would want to do, too.
And yet, "personhood" measures are dangerous and could lead to the government and politicians intruding in our personal lives, such as getting into our medical records to investigate miscarriages, dictating the birth control we use, and interfering with private medical decisions that should only be made by a woman with her doctor.
In short, under a "personhood" law (supposedly designed to protect the fetus), it is actually the pregnant woman who could be evaluated for possible murder charges if she suffered a miscarriage. It is the woman who could be charged with vehicular homicide if she, even sober, caused an accident that killed her fetus.
It is the woman and her doctor who could be charged with murder if she elected an abortion even if medical complications threatened her health.
It is the woman who, if she became pregnant as a result of rape or incest, would be forced to carry her pregnancy to term, taking away her ability to make her own decisions in a difficult situation.
No, the "personhood" trade-off is too harmful to women and families. "Personhood" for the fetus, as appealing as it sounds in this heartbreaking case, could actually bring more heartbreak to more mothers and potential mothers in the long run.
Let's try instead for stricter punishment, longer sentences and long-term treatment when indicated for DUI offenders on the second — not the fifth — offense. Colorado is one of only five states that does not have a felony charge for repeat DUI offenders. Let's change that, too.
Dottie Lamm, former first lady of Colorado, is a psychiatric social worker, a grandmother of four and a reproductive rights advocate.
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