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In pregnancy terms, quickening is the moment in pregnancy when the pregnant person starts to feel the fetus's movement in the uterus. Quickening in Farlex dictionary, in turn citing The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. copyright 2000 It was believed in Ancient philosophy (an idea that was later adopted by some religions and legal theories) that the quickening marked the moment that a soul entered the fetus, termed ensoulment.
A woman's uterus muscles, rather than her abdomen muscles, are first to sense fetal motion. Therefore, her body weight usually does not have a substantial effect on when movements are initially perceived. Women who have previously given birth have more relaxed uterine muscles which are more sensitive to fetal motion during subsequent pregnancies. For them fetal motion can sometimes be felt as early as 14 weeks.Van Der Ziel, Cornelia & Tourville, Jacqueline. Big, Beautiful & Pregnant: Expert Advice and Comforting Wisdom for the Expecting Plus-size Woman (Marlowe 2006). Retrieved 2007-02-15.
Quickening indicates the start of , usually felt 14–26 weeks after conception, or between the fourth and sixth month. A woman pregnant for the first time (i.e., a primigravida woman) typically feels fetal movements at about 20–21 weeks, whereas a woman who has given birth at least once will typically feel movements around 18 weeks.Levene, Malcolm et al. Essentials of Neonatal Medicine (Blackwell 2000), page 8. Retrieved 2007-02-15.
The first legal writer to describe abortion of a quick fetus as homicide was Henry de Bracton in the early 13th century:Henry de Bracton (1977). 9780674080386, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674080386See also Carla Spivack, To "Bring Down the Flowers": The Cultural Context of Abortion Law in Early Modern England 14 Wm. & Mary J. Women & L. 107 (2007), 133.
The fetal right to life post-quickening was recognized by the 18th century British legal scholar William Blackstone as a legally protected right "inherent by nature in every individual". Blackstone wrote that life became a legally protected right "as soon as an infant is able to stir in the mother's womb".''Blackstone's Commentaries: With Notes of Reference, To the Constitution and Laws, Of the Federal Government of The United States; And of the Commonwealth of Virginia, In Five Volumes. Book I, Vol. II, Of the Rights of Persons, 130. Blackstone explained the subject of quickening in the eighteenth century, relative to feticide and abortion:
Blackstone's Commentaries and other widely consulted common law authorities drew a dividing line at quickening analogous to the Fetal viability the Supreme Court attempted to draw in Roe v. Wade.
In England in the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries, a woman convicted of a capital crime could claim a delay in her execution if she were pregnant; a woman who did so was said to "plead the belly". The law held that no women could be granted a second reprieve from the original sentence on the ground of subsequent pregnancy, even if the fetus had quickened. In Ireland on 16 March 1831 Baron Pennefather in Limerick stated that pregnancy was not alone sufficient for a delay but there had to be quickening. Limerick Evening Post and Clare Sentinel, 18 March 1831.
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