Ethical dilemma of women's right to choose

While agreeing with Tiffany Jenkins (Opinion, 22 May), that there needs to be a free and frank debate on such an emotive subject as abortion, and a woman's right to choose, consideration ought also to be given to the ethical status of the foetus.

The 1967 Abortion Act, monitored by two medical practitioners, was intended to relieve intolerable circumstances and to protect the life and health of pregnant women by taking it out of the hands of back-street abortionists.

The act did not envision the subsequent scale of "one in three women" opting for a termination. As pointed out, abortion is now available on request and the signature of two doctors is a mere formality.

A number of years ago, following the debate on a report of the 1967 act by the Kirk's board of Social Responsibility, the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland concluded that abortion was only justified where the mother's life was at risk.

The emphasis on a woman's right to choose is surely relative and not absolute. If absolute, it would negate any arbitrary decision on the viability of the foetus and, therefore, would it not logically follow that the right to choose would apply throughout the gestation period?

In postulating the ethical status of the foetus it inevitably means there are two rights to be defended, the right of a woman to control her reproductive system and the right to life of the foetus. Women may seek voluntary abortions, foetuses do not. The only defence the foetus can depend upon is ours.

While a woman has a prior right to defend herself against an unwarranted and uninvited invasion of her body, that is very different where one becomes pregnant as the result of voluntary intimacy. By her own action, in tandem with a male consort, she has made her choice and in so doing has waived her right to the use of her body and transferred it to the dependent foetus, which therefore should not be disconnected from the life-support of her reproductive system.

Modern technology, along with an increasingly secular morality based on Hegelian utilitarianism, has given rise to an increasingly complex issue that necessitates a whole range of philosophical, theological, biological and ethical concerns, that were beyond the consideration of previous generations.

REV J HARRISON HUDSON

Hamilton Avenue

Tayport, Fife