Councillor wants stiff penalty for murder of pregnant women

The gruesome murder of three persons, including a pregnant woman in Waterloo district, St Catherine has spurred one political representative to call for legislative changes as it relates to the rights of unborn children.

Sharon Francis-Wellington, a cashier, was gunned down in her home along with her spouse Omar Wellington, 43-year-old salesman, and their son Orlando Wellington, 16-year-old student of Innswood High School.

Councillor Keisha Lewis of the Lauriston division of the St Catherine Municipal Corporation wants killers of pregnant women to be charged for demise of the foetus.

"When you kill the mother of this unborn child, I believe that you have taken the life of a child also," Lewis said. "I really do hope for the legislation which will allow the police to charge and prosecute these perpetrators. It is a wicked act and a life is a life."

The Offences Against the Person Act does not include a provision for holding persons culpable for the expiration of the foetus as a result of the killing of the mother.

In 2014, Children's Advocate Diahann Gordon Harrison told a joint select committee reviewing several pieces of sexual abuse legislation at Gordon House that in cases where pregnant women are murdered, the accused should be prosecuted for the death of the foetus as well. Her argument was that "life begins at the point of conception, and, as such, a foetus represents another life that if lost due to the deliberate action of another who intends to cause death or grievous bodily harm, that act ought to be punishable".

In some jurisdictions, killing a pregnant woman carrying a 'viable foetus' is deemed a double homicide.