A comparative study of the rights of the fetus in the subject laws of Iran and the Convention on the Rights of the Child

The religion of Islam, as the most perfect divine religion, always pays special attention to the status of man and the preservation of human dignity. In authentic Islamic and jurisprudential documents, according to the instructions made in the Holy Quran, human beings have material and spiritual rights from the time of sperm formation and coagulation as an adult, and a creature is considered to have the right to life and respect. The legislator in domestic law, following the religion of Islam by modeling valid Islamic documents, considers the fetus to have rights, and from the time of fertilization of the sperm by issuing the sanctity of abortion and issuing a performance guarantee for the perpetrators of this act, supports the life of the fetus and, after granting this right, considers him entitled to other rights such as the right to health and the right to money. However, in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as a comprehensive document on the recognition of the rights of the child, without mentioning the fetus and the period of pregnancy, only in the first paragraph of Article 6 of this document, member states are required to recognize the inherent right of all children. Other international instruments, such as the Introduction to the Universal Declaration of the Rights of the Child, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, refer to the period of pregnancy and the fetus. However, there is no text to grant financial or material rights to the fetus or to recognize her/his right to life, and the authors of these documents have only supported the child to prevent her death and stillbirth.