There are days when you shouldn't even get out of bed. This was the case with these two hikers from Essonne, France, who made a macabre discovery on Thursday 13 May 2021, during a harmless stroll along the banks of the Seine.
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Whilst on their walk, the two women found a plastic box near a bench. So far, nothing too shocking. But when they examined the contents, they were shocked. As soon as they removed the lid, they saw that in the container was a human foetus.
An investigation was opened
According to initial information, as reported by Le Parisien, the investigation has been entrusted to the Évry/Corbeil police station. It is believed to be a foetus of about four months. An autopsy will be carried out by the investigators to try to determine the causes of its 'death.' The Evry public prosecutor declared:
The examination will make it possible to know whether or not there was the intervention of a third party in the death. The legal questions will come later.
While the courts may indeed open proceedings to determine the cause of death and take DNA samples to try to identify the mother, these cases generally do not result in criminal proceedings in France. This was notably the case in August 2017, when a foetus was abandoned in a garden in the 7th arrondissement of Paris.
From a legal point of view, this fetus of a few centimetres has no personality. It can be neither alive nor dead. And the mother cannot be prosecuted.
Abandoned foetuses are on the rise
This foetus found on the banks of the Seine is far from being an isolated case. Last October, a foetus measuring about fifteen centimetres was discovered by a building guard in Sevran.
It was allegedly thrown out of the window by a panicked 15-year-old girl who had a miscarriage due to pregnancy denial.
