The Right to Choose

K.SURESHBABU ADVOCATE M.A(DEFENSESTUDIES)M.A.(CRIMINOLOGY)M.A.(LABOUR STUDIES)B.L.

The Bombay High Court’s  refusal to permit to abort  a 26-week fetus with a serious heart defect after rejecting the mother's plea to terminate the pregnancy is a case torn between trauma and ethical issues

This case raises medical and legal questions of great complexity, difficulty and interest. It raises also moral and ethical questions of great importance. But it is no exaggeration to say that the outcome of this case may potentially affect the everyday lives of thousands of ordinary men and women in this country. people regard the right to control one's own body as a key moral right. If women are not allowed to abort an unwanted fetus  are they deprived of their rights.

The simplest form of the women's rights argument in favour of abortion goes like this: Every human being of adult years and sound mind has a right
to determine Of what shall be done with his/her own body; a woman has the right to decide of what she can and can't do with her body, a woman has the right to decide whether the fetus should remain in her body; therefore a pregnant woman has the right to abort the fetus

The issue brings many ideas about human rights into brutally sharp focus. Every human being has the right to own their own body .A fetus is part of a woman's body therefore a  woman has the right to abort a fetus  she is  carrying

Although in recent decades the battle has centered around the right to abortion, this includes more than the right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy

Reproductive freedom is also about abortion rights for poor women. Even when abortion is illegal, wealthy women have and have always had the money and private doctors to obtain abortions, while poor women face the agony  of carrying an unwanted pregnancy

The question Is abortion immoral" and "Is abortion a murder" are often confused. If a woman does not use contraceptives and gets pregnant one can say that she signed a contract with her fetus. Can pregnancies  due to forced sex (rape being a special case) or which are life threatening should or could, morally, be terminated. 

The rights of the fetus are an inseparable part of the contract which the mother signed voluntarily and reasonably. They are derived from the mother's behavior. Getting willingly pregnant (or assuming the risk of getting pregnant by not using contraceptives reasonably is the behavior which validates and ratifies a contract between her and the fetus. can this specific contract (pregnancy) be annulled and, if so in what circumstances

A contract can be annulled and voided if signed under duress, involuntarily, by incompetent persons (e.g., the insane),It can also be  terminated or voided if it would be unreasonable to expect one of the parties to see it through. Rape, contraception failure, life threatening situations are all such cases.

Can abortion  be classified as murder?

No one disputes the  lay mans view that aborting a pregnancy is a crime  "Abortion should be looked upon not as killing the fetus but as ejecting it from the mother's body. The fact that the fetus might well die in the course of the ejection is incidental to the act of abortion.Law permits  a landowner to successfully assert in defense  to oust a trespasser  who has trespassed into his property  and if death is caused to the trespasser it is considered merely "incidental" to the act of "ejection", and therefore not an unlawful killing. A house owner has every right to remove his guest Likewise  a  fetus  is dependent on the owner of the womb in which it  reside. A guest may be asked to leave so   a  fetus may be removed.

 As far as there are any rights which are fundamental is a matter which is of such fundamental and basic concern to the woman involved she should be allowed to make the choice as to whether to continue or to terminate her pregnancy.

Law does not recognize unborn child as a person  but society has traditionally regarded the unborn as having rights. For example, the unborn may own property or be an heir, and convicted pregnant women on death row were not executed until after the child was born.

The fundamental biological differences between a fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus versus an infant show that a woman has every right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy for any reason. The pregnant woman is a human person with the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. So is an infant. However, neither a fertilized egg, an embryo, nor a fetus is a person. In such circumstances, the mother would have the right to travel outside the jurisdiction to avail of such services to secure a termination of the pregnancy.

Therefore a fetus  has no right to life-support from the woman. State or common law which  force a woman to provide such life-support under penalty of law would be a gross violation of her rights

K.SURESH BABU

ADVOCATE TRICHY