Is It Ok To Have An Abortion On The Grounds Of Gender?

[Ellipsis]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/10290200/Abortion-laws-left-meaningless-as-doctors-put-above-the-law.html

Following the decision not to prosecute two doctors who agreed to arrange abortions of baby girls purely because of their gender, even though there was enough evidence to charge those doctors, it seems fair to say that Britain's abortion legislation has become, up to 24 weeks at least, "meaningless".

Is it acceptable that a woman can de facto have an abortion on any grounds, including gender?

[keyplus90]

/////Keyplus, this could develop into a huge argument, if a tumour is growing nside of you and you want rid, then surely that is murdering the tumour?////

So a human being is equal to a tumour as long as he has not arrived into this world yet. Even if he has eyes, nose, eras, a beating heart and so on. Very good logic.

[Peter Pedant]

Change it to:

is it lawful ....

and the answer is no definitely not - this (gender abortion) falls outside the Abortion act 1967 and therefore falls inside the Offences against the Person Act 1861

I really really expected Sqad to know this....

This (the decision not to prosecute ) is not a precedent and the decision not to prosecute does not have an effect on the operation of law in the future.

The GMC [ the doctors' regulator ] may or may not have a memorandum of understanding with various bodies including the CPS - we know they have with various bodies - but they have no lawful/legal standing
and this accounts for the news that people are planning a private prosecution.

I dont think gender abortion is a matter solely for the GMC
I am surprised the CPS does.... did.


what was the question ?

[Ellipsis]

The question is as in the OP: Is It OK To Have An Abortion On The Grounds Of Gender?

I guess more specifically it is, "Accepting that abortion up to 24 weeks is acceptable in some circumstances, is it acceptable in all circumstances?"

And using gender selection as a practical example of a circumstance which might really test the thinking ...

[beso]

The world is already overpopulated. Let any woman who wants an abortion go ahead and have it.

[andy-hughes]

beso - but not for that reason.

[emmie]

it is illegal in UK to abort babies solely on the premise of gender.

[pixie373]

But it isn't if the woman states she is "distressed" by the sex of the baby.

[society]

I totally agree with ClaryS.

[emmie]

it doesn't say that exactly, because by law there is no abortion given solely on gender selection, it may be that it happens, which means the woman lies about her mental/physical health, and the doctors don't know, or they are complicit, or that she has it done privately, same rules should apply, there never should be gender selection abortion. this matter came up in another post, see if i can find the other link

http://www.abortionrights.org.uk/index.php/media-and-resource-centre/abortion-law/276

[emmie]

if the woman said she was distressed by the sex of the baby my understanding of the law is that she would not get the abortion, she may if she says she is physically/mentally unsound, so lies. We shouldn't be playing these sorts of games, China has come unstuck over this matter as some know, and now they are reaping the rewards.

[emmie]

this was the info i gleaned last time

http://www.babycentre.co.uk/a1014303/the-science-behind-sex-selection