Citation

Mackay RD. Med. Law 1988; 7(2): 177-183.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1988, International Centre of Medicine and Law)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

3231012

Abstract

An unmarried 21-year old student who received an unshielded x-ray during treatment for an illness was later found to be 18 weeks pregnant and was advised by 2 doctors to have an abortion. The child's father sought to gain an injunction, preventing the girl from getting the abortion and the area health authority from providing it, on grounds that the abortion of an 18-week fetus constituted the crime of child destruction under the terms of the 1929 Infant Life Preservation Act, which defines the crime as any willful act causing the death of a child capable of being born alive. The judge denied the plaintiff's request on the grounds that the abortion of a child born alive but unable to breathe either on its own or on a ventilator did not constitute child destruction. The tacit agreement that viability implies the ability to breathe leaves the legality of abortions performed at 22-25 weeks gestation unsettled, since it is not possible to ascertain pulmonary function in utero.

Language: en