National Committee for a Human Life Amendment

Born-Alive Infants Protection Act

On August 2, 2002, President Bush signed the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act into law. This law defines the words "person," " human being," "child," and "individual" to include "every infant member of the species homo sapiens who is born alive at any stage of development."

Professor Hadley Arkes, the architect of the act, characterizes the law as “spare” in language but “truly momentous,” providing “a predicate that can be built into the foundation now of every subsequent act of legislation touching the matter of abortion: that the child marked for abortion is indeed a ‛person’ who comes within the protection of law.” The story of how this measure became law is included in Professor Arkes’ book, Natural Rights and the Right to Choose (Cambridge, 2002).