The Edelin Case

It is lamentable that Judge James B. McGuire decided last week to send the abortion case against Dr. Kenneth Edelin to trial in Boston in January. If the nature of the hearings on the defense's dismissal motions is any indication, the trial will be circus-like and justice may prove prejudiced.

In neither of the two hearings on the motions has prosecutor Newman A. Flanagan displayed the warranted dedication to the law. His charge against Edelin is capricious and every statement he makes to clarify it makes the issue more confused. It is unclear what Flanagan says validates the manslaughter charge against Edelin--whether the fetus must have breathed, whether it must have been removed alive from the womb, whether it must have been over 24 weeks old, or whether it must have shown only a potential for life before it "died." The prosecutor has blithely left all these questions for Edelin to contemplate in the dock. The doctor has not been sufficiently clearly informed of the charge against him.

In one of its motions to dismiss, the defense took upon itself the burden of proof in attempting to show the judge that the fetus Edelin is accused of killing never lived. Precisely because prosecutor Flanagan had never attempted to rebut the evidence, the defense argued, the case should not go to court. The prosecutor failed to produce any reasoned refutation, but McGuire says Edelin must stand trial.

This trial will probably be long and expensive, the cast of witnesses will surely be extensive, and the courtroom is apt to become a forum for arguments against abortion, unrelated to the facts in this case. The defense is certainly justified in seeking a change of venue for the trial, to another criminal court in a county neighboring on largely Catholic Suffolk.

Judge McGuire might have anticipated such a motion when he heard preliminary motions in September and October. He also might have anticipated the vague and unsubstantiated case that prosecutor Flanagan seems intent on directing at Edelin in the course of a trial. It must be hoped now that the ultimate verdict will clear Edelin of a charge that should have been dismissed last week.