Live Birth Criteria when Defning Life as an Object of Protection under Criminal Law

The achievements of modern medical science have led to the situation when children born deeply premature have a chance to survive. In the paper, the authors examine the problems of determining the initial moment of human life associated with the life birth criteria, analyze approaches to the definition of live birth criteria adopted by the World Health Organization and consolidated by Russian experts in the Order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of Russia of 27 December 2011 No. 1687n “On Medical Criteria of Birth, Form of the Birth Document and the Procedure for its Issuance” (as amended on 13 September 2019).

The authors intended to identify and analyze some issues related to the lack of regulation of the legal status of deeply premature babies born 22 weeks premature or if the body weight of such children is not more than 500 g from the moment of their birth until they are seven days old. The authors are critical of the actual lack of legal regulation of the status of such children, assess the legal provisions regulating the mandatory resuscitation measures in relation to such children with due regard to the risks of further development of pathologies.

The paper provides for the conclusions about the need to clarify the conceptual and categorical apparatus in relation to the criteria of live birth, more complete consideration by domestic specialists of the criteria of live birth proposed by the World Health Organization, the need to take into account parents’ opinion concerning the extent of medical care for deeply premature children, including intensive care, within the framework of the institution of informed voluntary consent.

The authors call for special caution to examine any proposals to extend the limits of responsibility of medical workers, especially those related to the existence of gaps and ambiguities of the legal regulation.

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