Allow Cookies!
By using our website, you agree to the use of cookies
The Calcutta High Court has recently rejected the petition of women who wanted to terminate her 26-week old fetus as there was a high risk of the baby having a Down Syndrome, adding with the problems of esophagus, heart, and abdomen.
The Justice Tapabatrata Chakraborty has reasoned that the trauma which is faced by the mother has outweighed the Right to Life of the 26-week old fetus where almost all the organs of the fetus would have developed.
The Court has stated that “When the unborn gets a right to life it is always a difficulty in choosing a precise point. As the time passes with which the stages of development take place with which even the Right to Life of the fetus gets stronger. The more the fetus develops the more difficult it becomes to decide for abortion and at this stage, the fetus has Right to Life.
On Jan 22nd after several tests which showed these abnormalities in the fetus after which even the doctor has advised terminating the pregnancy the women have approached the court filing a petition under the provision of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971.
She requested the court that she would suffer mental agony if she would be forced to give birth to the child and further submitted that their financial condition is not good and they already have a daughter which would make it impossible for them to take care of the child with the special needs and further relied on precedents contending that Board should have considered various aspects like stage of pregnancy, period of survival of baby and post-natal health of child.
On the other hand, the State contended that the petitioners delayed in approaching the court, even though they had been informed regarding the condition of the fetus when it was 18 weeks old itself.
The court refused to accept the contention and said that the case doesn’t fall under the exception clause of Section 5 of the Act since mother’s life has no danger even if she continues her pregnancy and based on this grounds the petition has been dismissed.
86540
103860
630
114
59824