Opinion ID: 2801079
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Application of the conduct-focused approach

Text: Applying a conduct-focused approach to determine whether I.O.’s claim is Feresbarred, I would simply consider whether her alleged in utero injuries flowed directly from the military’s incident-to-service conduct toward her mother, an active duty servicemember. The military’s provision of obstetric care to I.O.’s servicemember mother is clearly incident-to-service conduct for which the military is immune from liability under Feres. See Madsen, 841 F.2d at 1012–13. Thus, I.O.’s claim is Feresbarred if her alleged in utero injuries can be said to flow directly from this protected conduct. Because I.O.’s in utero injuries necessarily derived from the military’s immunized conduct toward a servicemember, her claim is Feres-barred. This conclusion stems from the very nature of the mother-fetus relationship, which is unlike any other. Until the moment of birth, mother and fetus are inexplicably intertwined—they share oxygen, nutrients, and a physical body. By virtue of their inseparability, mother and fetus share a unity of interests. Although medical interventions may, at times, be directed more particularly to either the mother or her fetus, at all times the mother’s interest in safely delivering her child aligns with the fetus’s interest in a healthy birth. Because these ultimate interests are indivisible while 14 the fetus is in utero, it seems likely to me that a mother will inevitably be injured whenever her unborn child sustains in utero injuries. Thus, I disagree with the majority’s conclusion that fetal injuries can occur even though “the mother is truly not injured at all.” See Maj. Op. at 33. This conclusion not only defies the physical realities of pregnancy, but it also fails to acknowledge the unique mother-fetus bond and the inevitable mental or psychological injury a mother experiences whenever her unborn child is injured. Given the sui generis nature of the mother-fetus relationship, the military’s obligation to provide competent medical care to a pregnant servicemember extends to her unborn child. For the military to care properly for a servicemember during her pregnancy, that care will undeniably include not only attending to the servicemember’s health but also attending to a successful delivery of the fetus from her body. The reality is that the military acts toward both mother and fetus whenever it provides obstetric medical care to either mother or fetus. See Scales v. United States, 685 F.2d 970, 974 (5th Cir. 1982) (explaining that the treatment accorded to a pregnant servicemember mother is “inherently inseparable” from the treatment accorded to her fetus). Thus, regardless of whether the military’s obstetric medical care injures the mother or her fetus, 15 or both, Feres immunity attaches because such injuries are a direct result of the mother’s military status.5