[Legal and medico-legal assessment of medical errors in obstetrics]

The authors review the doctrine of criminal law and the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court in search of a starting point for the legal protection of human life and health. In cases of medical errors in obstetrics concerning a fetus, an act of a perpetrator can be classified as manslaughter or exposure to direct danger of loss of life or great bodily injury depending on whether the fetus is recognized as "a human being". The authors criticize the doctrinal criteria of the beginning of legal protection: spatial, physiological, obstetric, and developmental, pointing to the possibilities of decriminalization of medical errors of omission. A solution to this situation is the presented evolution of the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. It moves towards establishing the beginning of legal and criminal protection of life and health at the "moment of emergence of objective grounds to necessitate delivery".