h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

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That's my view as well. I don't think viability will *ever* become 4 weeks... it was 26 when I was last populating, but that was in the 1980s, so it's a sticky question.
As your experience shows, Nyss, not all preemies end up with disabilities.

Given my recent postings on the smacking threads I think this may be seen as hypocritical, but its not.

I think the state has no business interfering with what goes on in any of our bodies, but it does have a right and infact a ned to interefe in the interests of social standards and public health. Yes you should be liable to incarceration till your TB has cleared up or forced to vaccinate.

Likewise in the interest of not distressing the public too much women should be forced to not harm their foetus after 24 weeks. By using drugs, drinking heavily or smoking. Certainly terminations should be banned. Personal freedoms have to be balanced with public responsibility.

We should be able to drive where we want but not on pavements or at excessive speed or the wrong way up a carriageway ect, ect.... Sticking to rules makes things better for everyone in the long run in such circumstances. (other than the environmental damage)(I didnt say it was a perfect analogy)

Viability should not really enter into it. The post traumatic stress disorder asociated with adoption for the mother should be something that women who have the forethought to get a termination booked before 24 weeks should be allowed to avoid. If a woman hasnt and has no immediate physical need then she should have to carry to term in the interests of keeping termination as something that is acceptable to society at large and therefore available to other individuals.

one love

>> "in the interest of not distressing the public too much"

Rather a movable target that - just how much *is* too much?
Is it a matter of not upsetting the majority significantly, or if a minority get *really* upset about something, should that be enough to get that something stopped?

Good point, Potholer.

What I mean is that if a majority were suitably moved to call for a changewhich was hijacked by a vocal minority and turned into an outright ban.

There may always be a number of people who are outright against terminations being free and legally available *and* I hope there will always be those who dont want to allow elective terminations at 8 months say.

I think it is in the interest of all women that these two groups dont end up having their concerns conflated as they have with the PBA legislation in the US. HOwever that is more of a situation concerning Lack of education about the D&X procedure, butdoes show what can happen whe the two campsare hoodwinked into working as one.

one love

Viability should not really enter into it. The post traumatic stress disorder asociated with adoption for the mother should be something that women who have the forethought to get a termination booked before 24 weeks should be allowed to avoid. If a woman hasnt and has no immediate physical need then she should have to carry to term in the interests of keeping termination as something that is acceptable to society at large and therefore available to other individuals.>>

Ack, sorry, I'm confused. Isn't 24 weeks based on viability? If not, where does the date come from?

I think it was originally 28 weeks in the UK, Nyss, and you're probably right that it was based on the viability of a foetus surviving outside the womb.

I find it curious that the very same person who was responsible for setting these laws in the first place is now trying to cut the admissable time-frame factor in half! Seems very drastic. Perhaps he's had some sort of religious conversion?

az

It's an interesting question. I had assumed it was tied to gestational development, and the fact that O and G's see pregnancy in trimesters.

Also I hadn't seen a connection between advances in saving premature babies, and the abortion rate lowering, although the legal system would create a time lag perhaps.

I'd be interested if any one gets a definitive answer on this.

I just had a look at the NZ abortion legislation. There is a 20 week cut off between what might realistically be called 'elective' terminations and those necessary to save the woman's life. That legislation was brought in in 1961.



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I was also interested to see how the law viewed the killing of an unborn child (given what is going on in the States):

>>182.Killing unborn child—
(1)Every one is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 14 years who causes the death of any child that has not become a human being in such a manner that he would have been guilty of murder if the child had become a human being.<<

I guess that means that legally a child isn't considered human until after it is born but is accorded the same right of protection.

It seems it depends on where you live:

>>
* Gestational age. Gestational age limits for abortion on request range from fetal viability in the United States, Puerto Rico and the Netherlands and 24 weeks in Singapore to 12 weeks in 33 nations (Table 1).14 There is, however, no uniform method of calculating gestational age. In most countries, the duration of the pregnancy is calculated from the first day of the last menstrual period. In others, pregnancy is deemed to begin on the estimated date of conception--about two weeks later. Often, the law does not specify which method of calculation should be used--thus potentially allowing the law to be applied differently depending on the method of calculation used by the provider. For consistency, the gestational limits indicated in Table 1 were all calculated from the last menstrual period.

In nations where abortions are available until a particular gestational age, abortions are still permissible after the prescribed gestational age, but only under limited circumstances. Several nations, such as Belgium, France, and Great Britain, permit an abortion at any time to protect a woman's life or health or on fetal impairment grounds. Others, such as the Russian Federation and South Africa, permit abortion on mental health or socioeconomic grounds beyond the gestational age limit, but before a specified point later in the pregnancy.15 <<

http://www.agi-usa.org/pubs/journals/2405698.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6569007.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8076253.stm

So to what degree was the "Late Term" part of this linked in with the murder....

I sort of half remembered this thread was based on the late term abortions so thought it might be pertinent....

FB