MPs Vote to Make Sex Selection Abortion Illegal
By Georgia Graham,
Daily Telegraph [UK]
| 11. 04. 2014
Untitled Document
MPs have voted overwhelmingly in favour of a motion declaring that sex-selection abortion is illegal.
They voted 181 to 1 for a motion brought forward by a cross-party alliance of MPs in an effort to end uncertainty over whether doctors can be prosecuted for the practice. It will now have a second reading in January.
Confusion over the law was exposed last year by the decision of the then Director of Public Prosecutions, Sir Keir Starmer, not to bring charges against two doctors caught on camera agreeing to arrange abortions of baby girls purely because of their sex, in a Telegraph investigation.
The case was investigated by Scotland Yard and passed on to the Crown Prosecution Service which said that although there was enough evidence, it was not in the “public interest” to bring charges.
But Sir Keir later issued a detailed explanation pointing out that the law “does not, in terms, expressly prohibit gender-specific abortions”. He said doctors have “wide discretion” in assessing whether continuing the pregnancy could threaten the physical or mental health of the mother...
Related Articles
By Rachel Clayton, ABC News | 07.08.2024
In her early 30s, Michelle Galea wasn't convinced motherhood was for her.
"I didn't know if I wanted a child or if society was telling me I should have a child right now," she said.
But as she watched two...
By Shivam Jadaun and Shivani, JURISTnews | 06.27.2024
Image by European Council from Flickr
In some European Union nations, the forced sterilisation of people with disabilities is still a widespread and concerning practice that blatantly violates their fundamental rights and human dignity. The scope of forced sterilisation in...
By Miri (Margaret) Raven, Alana Gall, Bibi Barba, and Daniel Robinson, The Conversation | 06.02.2024
Image by Ahmet Kurt from Unsplash
Last week, at a conference in Geneva, the member states of the World Intellectual Property Organisation agreed on a new treaty aimed at preventing the for-profit piracy of traditional knowledge.
So-called “biopiracy”, in...
By Osagie K. Obasogie, L.A. Review of Books | 04.17.2024
When Robert G. Edwards won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2010 for developing in vitro fertilization (IVF) decades earlier in 1978, many members of the scientific community sighed in relief. This honor, they felt, was long...