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New inquiry into abortion ethics

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ParliamentA new investigation has been set up to address the ethics of aborting disabled foetuses.

Government officials and MPs have been asked to investigate the delicate case of abortion and disability.

Currently the Abortion Act of 1967 allows abortion up to 24 weeks into a pregnancy.

However, it is currently legal to terminate a pregnancy up to full-term on the grounds of disability.

In such cases, doctors have to confirm  that “there is a substantial risk that if the child was born it would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped.”

It was found that 146 of the 190,000 abortions carried out in 2011 took place after the 24 week limit.

According to Department of Health statistics 2,307 abortions were carried out in 2011 under Abortion Act 1967 Ground E, for disability.

More than 500 of the 190,000 abortions followed screening for Down’s syndrome.

Less than half of the total number of abortions were recorded by the Department of Health, suggesting that abortions had taken place without any concrete reason such as physical or mental disability.

The 2010 Equality Act says that discrimination against any disability is prohibited, so a person with a disability cannot be treated “less favourably” than one without.

In light of this, the choice to abort a ‘disabled’ foetus at a late stage of pregnancy, or even at all, has raised some ethical concerns among MPs as well as the wider public.

Tory MP Fiona Bruce who will head the new cross-party inquiry, insisted that, “bearing in mind both medical advances and advances in our attitudes to disability over recent years,” an open debate was necessary to discuss whether new legislation should be introduced.

“The majority of the Commission have a particular interest in disability and we are keen to receive evidence from as many people as possible to enable a thorough analysis of the current law and practice,” she said.

The debate has raised serious questions about whether the abortion of disabled babies could be regarded as discrimination.

The issue has sparked varying opinions from the pro-life and the pro-choice forums.

Ann Furedi, pro-choice activist and chief executive of BPAS, the UK’s largest independent abortion provide, argued that discrimination claims over unborn children were unjustified.

“Abortion for fetal abnormality is not eugenic, unethical or immoral. It is simply one form of abortion,” she said.

“Abortion in any instance should be based on a right women have to make decisions about their own lives.

“This is important because it implies a respect for women’s moral worth and their moral autonomy.

“The principle that we should be allowed to make decisions on the basis of our conscience and act on them is an important one, to deny this to women in pregnancy is to deny them an integral expression of their humanity,” she said.

Pro-Life argued in a letter published last year in the Daily Telegraph that ‘The athletes [in the Paralympics] produced such astonishing examples of courage and triumph over disability that we now have to re-think what we mean by ‘disabled’ and ‘able’.”

The inquiry committee includes Fiona Bruce, Labour’s Virendra Sharma, and Baroness Hollins, president of the British Medical Association (BMA).

The inquiry will be comprised of oral and written evidence which will be analysed in a report to be launched in May 2013.

Written evidence submissions will be accepted until 5pm on 6 March. The form and guidance can be downloaded here.

  1. My question is whether there is a realistic social and personal, financial and practical support structure in place that could help support the parents of disabled or Down’s children?

    We can’t just legislate against abortion on grounds of disability and then abandon the parents to fend for themselves at a time when we’re cutting social support across the board?

    I really hope that any legislation would consider that and go hand-in-hand with improved systems for post-birth and lifetime support.

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