A fetus is not a person, Taiwan court rules in child neglect caseStaff Writer, with CNAA married couple who frequently smoked meth at home during the wife’s pregnancy cannot be sentenced for impeding their child’s development, since Taiwan’s Criminal Code does not treat an unborn fetus as a person, a Kaohsiung court has ruled. Specifically, the court said, the couple was found to have used meth multiple times from March 2024 up until 12 hours before their second child was born on Sept. 4 of that year. Taiwan Kaohsiung District Court in Kaohsiung is pictured in this photograph on Jan.29. Kaohsiung prosecutors later indicted the couple for offenses of impeding the development of children under age 7, both for their first child and the second child that Lin was pregnant with at the time of the offense. Fetuses in Taiwanese lawAlthough abortion-related crimes remain part of Taiwan’s Criminal Code, abortion was effectively legalized with the passage of the Reproductive Health Act in 1984.

Source: Taipei Times April 01, 2026 18:42 UTC