Abortion:legal discussion - Essay Example

Legal discussion on abortion has concerned the autonomy of the pregnant woman as balanced against the rights of the foetus. Does such a balance sufficiently address the moral conscience of today's society, and how does it reflect the tensions raised in the Hart/Devlin debate' Introduction Present day legal discussion on abortion is concerned with both the autonomy of the pregnant woman and the rights of the foetus. While abortion is accepted as an accustomed social practice and is permitted by law, the rights of the foetus to live are very often undermined. This tends one to doubt about the collective moral conscience of the society. The rampant increase in the number of abortions in the UK since the Abortion Act 1967 is the proof that how easily the basic moral concepts of a nation could be overthrown by certain constitutional amendments. This paper tries to discuss the prevailing legal codes on abortion in U.K and it seeks to explore whether the law provides equal attention and priority to both the autonomy of the pregnant woman and the rights of the foetus. While law fails to prevent abortion one needs to imbibe values from the prevailing social and ethical codes in the society to protect the rights of the foetus. Thus, the paper also tries to find out how the moral conscience of the society responds to the legal issues on abortion. Legal Codes and Abortion in UK The Abortion Act 1967: The women of United Kingdom no longer needed to lurk behind the shadows to get their pregnancy terminated since the introduction of the Abortion Act. Though the law had its own provisions to safeguard the rights of the foetus or to prevent unwanted practices, the actual result was quite suspicious. The abortion act 1967 permitted abortion legal up to 28 weeks gestation until 1990 when the law was amended by the Human Fertilization and Embryology Act; according to the amendment abortion became legal only up to 24 weeks except where it was necessary to save the life of the woman, extreme foetal abnormality or there was a serious risk of physical or mental injury to the woman (Education for Choice: History of UK abortion law) The dangerous provision of the law which permitted abortion under the observation of medical practitioners was obviously misused. The provisions of the act restates that "a person shall not be guilty of an offence under the law relating to abortion when a pregnancy is terminated by a registered medical practitioner if two registered medical practitioners are of the opinion, formed in good faith" (Abortion Act 1967 (c. 87). Though the law insists the consent of two doctors and counselling to the client, in usual practice none of these instructions are strictly followed. The Act has helped the emergence of many business groups in the UK and the case has been performed with little seriousness. The Act also recommends that the termination of foetus could be in a situation when "the continuance of the pregnancy would involve risks to the life of the pregnant woman, greater than if the pregnancy were terminated" (Abortion Act 1967. c.87). Recent statistics: The abortion statistics after the introduction of the abortion act of 1967 is quite alarming and demands immediate reconsideration. The UK Abortion Statistics points out that since the introduction of the ACT the abortion ratio has increased considerably: "In 2007, the total number of abortions on residents of England and Wales was 198,500 compared with 193,700 in 2006, a rise of 2.5%" (Facts about Abortion: U.K. Abortion Statistics). The BBC News makes clear the adverse effects of the act on the lives of the foetus: "The number of abortions carried out has been rising ever since the 1967 Abortion Act with just over 22000 terminations in the first year" (BBC News: Abortion Increase in Young Girls 2008). The noticeable growth in the number of abortions since 1967 shows the dominance of a new theory over the British society. The absence of moral enforcement has been gradually engulfing the social setup as many thinkers had warned about. The government has to review whether law has no business in shaping the moral behaviour and thought of the individuals. Abortion: the autonomy of the pregnant woman and the rights of the foetus Termination of pregnancy for reason of foetal disability is promoted in many societies as many feel that it is better to destroy the foetus rather than allowing it to grow and lead a life of misery. According to Johnson (1990), the disabled children have t face a 'hostile environment' and they cause problems to both the parents and the society (p. 14). Similarly, there are many studies that purport that destroying the disabled foetus in the mother's womb is right based on the foetal interests argument, the replacement argument, and the parental interests argument (Abortion and disability). While destroying a disabled foetus at the mother's womb can be accepted to some extend, providing legal provision to kill a normal foetus is against the very concept of morality and human life. In this respect, the question whether the disabled do not have a right to live is debatable. The autonomy of the pregnant woman is stressed unduly in the UK legislations while the rights of the foetus is not clearly defined or supported by the law. In this respect it is worthwhile to consider the view of Shakespeare (1998) regarding the rights of the foetus in the abortion issue. According to him, "current abortion law discriminates against the impaired foetus ... The law should not discriminate between impaired and non-impaired foetuses: a common time limit should be adopted for all pregnancies" (Shakespeare, 1998, p. 671). This is very well put by Heinze when he makes a meaningful debate on whether the foetus is to be considered as a person or not. In his view, if the foetus is considered as a person it is absolutely wrong to harm it any way (Heinze, 2005, p. 30). Thus, the only possible way to address the rights of the foetus is based on moral and social codes-human and therefore, it is necessary to analyse whether human conscience permits such a deed as abortion. Morality and Abortion in U.K Moral and religious codes have strongly condemned abortion as an immoral act which is equal to murder. The Catholic Church is the forerunner in anti abortion campaigns as it is against the religious and moral codes. Thus, one finds efforts from England's Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Cornor and Scotland's Cardinal Keith O'Brien to put pressure "on catholic politicians to reform British abortion law. The Arch Bishop of Westminster turned abortion into a general election issue in England two years ago by calling on voters to back only antiabortion candidates" (Doughty, Steve 2007). However, despite the protests and requests for the amendments one more Bill was passed by the British parliament which would place the value of human life at a more debatable position. The BBC News, in this respect, reports that "the Human Fertilization and Embryology Bill which allows experiments on hybrid human-animal embryos, passed despite a rebellion by 16 Labour MPs" (BBC News: MPs support embryology proposals 2008). Hart/Devlin debate: The lack of moral codes in legislations with regard to abortions has been severely criticised by Lord Devlin. When the Sexual offence Act 1967 was passed Lord Devlin a former law lord criticized the law in his lecture The Enforcement of Morals (1959) saying that what makes a society of any sort is a community of ideas, not only political but also ideas about the way its members should behave and govern their lives, and for him these ideas were nothing but the morals prevalent in the society (Mothersole & Ridley, 1999, p. 28). According to him, any conduct which arouses feelings of intolerance, indignation and disgust is injurious to society, and should be controlled by the law even if no harm is caused to others. Lord Devlin's ideas were opposed by Professor Hart of Oxford. He questioned the view that the majority had a right to enforce their ideas on others and agreed that the law should enforce some moral norms of the society -universal values - but the question was that where the line should be drawn (Mothersole & Ridley, 1999, p. 28). When the law supports the Hart theory that a person can not be accused for the immoral thoughts it ultimately encourages immorality which results in immoral activities or crimes. In fact there are many things which can not be enforced only by laws. The socially approved practices and traditions have their own significance in a culture. It is often criticized that after the Law came into force many of the moral offence concepts have been terminated even from the minds of people. The practices like homosexuality and abortion have been disapproved for centuries. But today it is not so. The idea that unless an act does not harm others, could be permitted has far reaching adverse effects on the society. Conclusions The 1967 Act which intensified the growing number of abortions, along with the new Human Fertilization and Embryology Bill would create a society with little morality in which human beings will be just a substance for experiments. The new law would permit scientists to handle the human life as they wish as similar to the physicians who kill the foetus. The awaiting disaster will be unpredictable. The advent of the new Bill has brought the issue of abortion inviting the public conscious to the concern for a second time. Although people of UK have become accustomed to abortion as an approved social practice, the underlying danger that is looming over the young generation can not be forgotten. The liberal approach of governments and paucity of adequate legislation on this regard have conveyed a false message to youth that a condom or a contraceptive could be the minimum license for intercourse. The prevailing situations and the statistics show that the abortion industry has gained it's throttlehold on the community of United Kingdom. It is the best example how a law could be misused for the selfish intentions. The situation has left no room for a new Devlin/Hart debate. Considering the present scenario one would assume that finally Devlin theory has been proved right. Abortion performed to save the life of a pregnant woman is rare. It shows that the law has failed to meet its objectives. People have been taking advantage from the weak points of the Abortion Act. Pregnancy is the autonomy of a woman whereas abortion can not be considered so. Other precautionary methods could be adopted by a woman if she does not want to be pregnant. The issue whether a foetus is a person no more remains debatable. The after effects of abortion like mental as well as physical agony could be enough to convince the public about the related problems of abortion. Should immorality be considered as a crime' That was the question raised by Hart for which his answer was no. Thus, it can be concluded that law enforcement on abortion needs to take into account the moral concepts and values of the society. The present day legal discussions on abortion neither reflect the moral consciousness of today's society nor address the privileges of foetus. References Abortion Act 1967 (c. 87), The UK Statute Law Database, viewed 15 March 2009, < http://www.statutelaw.gov.uk/content.aspx'activeTextDocId=1181037 >. Abortion and disability, Information Resource Library, pro choice forum, viewed 22 March 2009, < http://www.prochoiceforum.org.uk/aad5.asp#top>. BBC News: MPs support embryology proposals 2008, BBC News, viewed 15 March 2009, . Doughty, Steve 2007, 'Catholic MPs 'Must Not Back Abortion', The Daily Mail. June 1, p. 25. Education for Choice: History of UK abortion law 2005, Education for Choice, viewed 15 Mar. 09, . Facts about Abortion: U.K. Abortion Statistics 2005-2009, Abort73.com, viewed 15 Mar. 09, < http://www.abort73.com/index.php'/abortion_facts/uk_abortion_statistics >. Heinze, Eric 2005, The Logic of Constitutional Rights, Illustrated Edition, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. Johnson, M 1990, 'Aborting Defective Fetales - What Will it Do''. Link Disability Journal, August/September 14. Mothersole, Brenda & Ridley, Ann 1999, A-Level Law in Action: MacMillan Law Masters, Illustrated Edition 2, Cengage Learning EMEA. Shakespeare, T 1998, 'Choice and Rights: Eugenics, Genetics and Disability Equality' 13 Disability & Society. Vol. 13. p. 671. Wylie-Harris, Sam 2008, 'Lifestyle: Should We Limit a Woman's Right to Choose' Sam Wylie-Harris Looks at the Key Issues Surrounding the Forthcoming Vote on Abortion and Talks to Those for and against a Change in the Law', The Birmingham Post. May 16, p. 9. Read More