feticide

Foeticide (or feticide) is the act of killing a human fetus. The term may also encompass the killing of a human embryo. Definitions differ between legal and medical applications. In law, feticide (or fetal homicide) frequently refers to a criminal offense. In medicine, the term generally refers to a part of an abortion procedure in which a provider intentionally induces the death of the embryo or fetus to avoid the chance of an unintended live birth, or as a standalone procedure in the case of selective reduction.

==Etymology== Foeticide derives from two constituent Latin roots. Foetus, meaning child, is an alternate form of fetus coming from the writings of Isidorus, who preferred oe due to its association with foveo "I cherish" as opposed to feo "I beget". Foetus is compounded with the suffix -cide, from caedere, "to cut down, to kill." Also see homicide, genocide, infanticide, matricide, and regicide.