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In North Carolina, a murder victim has to breathe before being killed.

Hence the macabre exercise by state and military investigators earlier this year to determine whether the lungs of slain Marine Maria Lauterbach's fetus contained traces of oxygen at the time of death. If so, suspect Cesar Laurean could be charged with two murders instead of one.

The autopsy was negative. Lauterbach's unborn baby, although nearly full term, was not an individual person under the state's criminal statutes.

Republican legislators want to change that, but their proposed fetal homicide law, ironically, won't get a chance for life, either. House and Senate versions have been buried in committees since they were introduced last year.

Interest stirs occasionally, usually after a pregnant woman is murdered. The latest is Megan Lynn Touma, another military woman. The Fort Bragg soldier, seven months pregnant, was found dead June 21 in Fayetteville. No arrest has been made.

Last year, a Durham woman was shot to death near her home eight months into pregnancy, and the alleged father was charged with her murder.

Also last year, a Wake County woman delivering USA Today newspapers to earn extra money for her family was stabbed to death.

"Instead of celebrating the birth of a baby boy who was due Sunday, the family will hold a candlelight vigil tonight near the North Carolina Capitol to call attention to the deaths of Jennifer Nielsen and her 8-month-old fetus, who would have been named Ethen," USA Today reported.

"We're trying to show these legislators that my grandson died and they're not even acknowledging his existence," Nielsen's father told the newspaper.

That's not quite true. Current law does provide that a person who, in commission of a felony against a woman he knows to be pregnant, causes an injury that results in a miscarriage or stillbirth can be charged with a felony "one class higher" than the felony committed.

Of course, in the case of first-degree murder, there is no higher felony. So there's no additional penalty for killing a pregnant woman.

Most states have much stronger laws than that on their books, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In Virginia, for example, the conference notes, a 2004 statute "declares that any person who unlawfully, willfully, deliberately, maliciously and with premeditation kills a fetus is guilty of a Class 2 felony." The penalty is five to 40 years in prison.

The North Carolina proposal would create a separate offense for killing a pregnant woman and causing the death of "an unborn child." That term isn't defined. No evidence would be required to show the accused knew the woman was pregnant or intended to harm the fetus.

Opposition to this measure has been quietly effective. Pro-choice advocates see it as a threat, and Democratic legislators clearly don't want to undermine the foundation of legalized abortion by extending legal recognition to any "unborn child."

I suspect that's exactly what some proponents of the fetal homicide bill have in mind.

Nevertheless, the measure includes language explicitly stating it does not apply to an abortion conducted with the consent of the pregnant woman. That should satisfy people worried about the reach of this initiative.

In fact, rather than reject legal protection for a fetus, champions of "choice" should embrace the idea. When a woman chooses to carry a baby to term, she's assigned the highest value to the developing life within her. Denying the humanity of that person prior to its birth devalues the mother's decision. How can one be pro-choice but contend the object of choice shouldn't hold legal status until it appears in the delivery room?

Those of us who haven't experienced the tragedy of losing a loved one to violence can't understand the horror or anguish, but surely we'd feel a double loss if the victim were carrying a longed-for child.

What difference whether it ever drew a breath?

Contact Doug Clark at dgclark@news-record.com or 373-7039