Contentious Issues Related to the Perpetrator of Bodily Harm or a Disturbance of Health in a Conceived Child

The Polish legislator has regulated the personal side of the offence of bodily injury in a child conceived in a manner different from the regulations adopted for crimes related to causing injury to the health of a born person. In the current legal framework, inadvertent harm to a conceived child or life threatening health disorder is not criminalised. Such a state of affairs leads to the issue of a possible amendment of Article 157a of the Penal Code regarding the punishability of unintentional acts. It seems (taking into account the birth criterion) that the legislator differentiates the protection of legal goods in the form of human life and health. It is indisputable that criminal law is an ultima ratio, applied when other legal means are not adequate to the rank of the protected good. However, despite the fact that there are civil regulations on this subject, it seems that they are not a sufficient means of protecting the legal goods in question. For this reason, this discourse proposes several solutions with regard to the subjective part of the offence of Article157a PC.