La Croix then explains that the possibility to register a stillborn foetus in the Register of Births "is not a certificate of birth and determines no fatherhood or motherhood. It only gives a name to the child, but not a surname, which is related to a legal status and, as such, cannot be given but to a live baby. With a stillborn foetus, registration in the Registrar is but a mere administrative mention". Then, there is the awkward issue of the legislation on termination of pregnancy. If such French pro-life movements as "Choisir la vie" think that with this sentence the legislator acknowledges "the status of the baby being born" and therefore the status of "human being since its conception", the jurists think the opposite is true, because reads La Croix – "the registration of a stillborn baby in the Register of Births is just a form of acknowledgement that gives the foetus no legal status". At the end, the article published in La Croix suggests two ways out: Enforcing the 2001 Memo "by adding to the legislation a threshold, above which a stillborn baby can be registered". Or else, "remaining in this legal tangle", and "in this case, it will be the judges who will construe the law".
