Analyzing the Value of Life: The Role of Law and Individual Choice

This essay explores the complex issue of whether the value of life should be determined by law or individual choice, focusing primarily on abortion. It examines the UK's abortion laws, referencing the Abortion Act 1967 and the Offences against the Person Act 1861, and discusses the legal conditions under which abortion is permitted. The essay also delves into the religious perspectives on abortion, highlighting the diverse views across different faiths and the moral and spiritual implications for individuals involved. It addresses the dangers of illegal abortions, citing statistics and real-world examples to emphasize the risks to women's health and lives. Expert opinions are presented to further illustrate the ethical and legal considerations, advocating for a balance between legal frameworks and individual rights in making decisions about the value of life. The essay concludes by summarizing the arguments, ultimately supporting the governance of law to set limitations and ensure the safety and well-being of women while respecting individual rights.

THE VALUE OF LIFE- SHOULD THE VALUE OF LIFE DECIDED BY LAW

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Abortion law in UK................................................................................................................3
Abortion and religion.............................................................................................................4
Illegal abortion is dangerous..................................................................................................5
Expert advice:.........................................................................................................................6
CONLUSION..................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
The Value of Life should be Decided by Law or the Individual is a critical point of discussion
because as Human right it is an individual choice of to live up to own standards but on the other
hand there should be some guidelines and practices for controlling human action in certain
situation. The essay will outline abortion and law, abortion and religion with the help of opinion
of different scholars which will help in deriving whether value of life should be manged by
individual or law. The discussion will outline expert opinion from different studies which will
helps in suggesting about governance of law and individual.
MAIN BODY
Abortion law in UK
In accordance with Abortion Act (1967), abortion is considered as legal ion most of the
circumstances. As per the laws, in Northern Ireland, abortion is illegal except when such
decision taken with the motive to save mother’s life. Section 1 (1) of Abortion Act (1967),
clearly exhibits that individual shall not be guilty pertaining to abortion when permission for the
same taken by registered medical practitioners. In addition to this, when medical practitioner
assessed that pregnancy wills adversely impact mental health of concerned woman then abortion
is not recognized as illegal. Besides this, as per the legal framework abortion is allowable when
pregnancy imposes risk of life in terms of permanent injury. In the case of substantial risk to the
child in terms of physical or mental abnormalities individual shall not be guilty of an offence.
Hence, it has found from the assessment that, for abortion, assurance from two doctors must be
required (Abortion law in the UK, 2019). In other words, doct6ors or such medical practitioners
need to ensure that all the condition of such Act was met and need to sign related certificate as
well.
Case Royal College of nursing of the UK v DHSS [1981] is related to Offences against the
Person act 1861 which in turn presents abortion as an offence or illegal practice. This case
presents that medical registered practitioner can give permission for abortion if specific condition
were met mentioned in sec 1(1) of the concerned Act (Royal College of Nursing v DHSS [1981]

2 WLR 279, 2019). In such case judiciary authority gave judgement in the favour of nurses
pertaining to carrying out abortions.
According to the section 58 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861 in UK abortion
through women who is conceiving child is serious crime as they will not be able to procure their
miscarriage using any means. These means would include like with use of poison or any other
way or use of instrument which could cause abortion of child will be acted as unlawful and must
be kept in penal servitude for throughout their life.
As per the section 59 of Offence against Person Act 1861 of UK the person who is found
responsible for supplying any sort of poison or other noxious thing is also punishable with
imprisonment. However, this is only possible when they have done this intentionally and
knowingly that the poison supplied is to be used for miscarriage or abortion of any women.
It could be noted that under section 58 the women who is enacting abortion is punishable
for shorter period of time while that supplier under section 59 will be punishable for about 5
years of imprisonment (Abortion law in the UK, 2019). While under the Abortion law 1861 the
women who are taking contraceptive pills during her time of pregnancy should be kept
imprisonment for lifetime in UK. It was also included that if the women without taking clear and
written consent of at least 2 doctors is ordering pills online will also be jailed. While this is also
indicated in Criminal Law of 1861 that there is difference between late and early abortion that
too before 12 weeks as at this time foetus is unviable.
Abortion and religion
Abortion law restricts and prohibits the availability of abortion. All the religions have taken
strong positions on abortion; they believe that the issue encompasses profound issues of life and
death, right and wrong, human relationships and the nature of society, that make it a major
religious concern (Aiken and et.al., 2019). The individual or couple who go through abortions
are not just emotionally but spiritually broken as well. Abortion not only affects the physical
condition but as well as mental condition. It makes the women too unhealthy and conscious.
Often the women who go through this phase suffers from the trauma. The abortion has been
frequently banned by the law. The government do not support abortion. Different religion has
different type of opinion on the aspects of abortion. In some religion they identify the gender of
child in first case and if they find out the child is girl, the society goes for abortion. It has been

also analysed that 5 out of 10 women go for abortion because of the perspective of their family
and also because of the law. The abortion can only be done before 3 months. Women go through
abortions are often found, depressive and weak. They also suffer from issues like anxiety which
makes them unhealthier and unfit. No religion actively supports abortion, but some religions
accept that there are situations when abortion may be necessary. A few religions oppose abortion
under all circumstances.
Value of life should be decided by law, as abortion should be done according to law. There are
many countries where culture allow people to abort their child but due to this health and life of
women get affected badly. As abortion after three months’ increase chances of death among
women thus, law has prohibited to hospitals to commit such actions. As in the Buddhist culture
abortion is considered as crime, this culture states that abortion is the destruction of life thus, it
must be rejected (Region, rights and religion, 2015). As per Islam region after 120 days’ foetus
become a living soul thus, terminating pregnancy is completely wrong. But pregnancy
termination is completely medical process thus, medical professional describe that after 120 days
it is very dangerous to take action of abortion because it affects the health of lady to great extent.
Whether person belongs to any religion, abortion of 120 days’ pregnant girl will affect her and it
may cause death of the person as well. Thus, decision of absorption must be take according to
law.
According to Canon law abortion is prohibited and catholic church believes that life
begins at conception thus, it should not be destroyed on individual perception. there must be
legal penalties if someone is engaged in such kind of activities. In Catholic church culture there
are liberalising abortion laws. Islam has no particular structure thus, it believes that abortion
must be permitted because of health reason, no other things should be considered into it.
Illegal abortion is dangerous
Abortion is not known to be a nice topic to discuss or think about, and not everyone needs to see
more abortion. The idea of aborting an unborn fetus is very unpleasant, although women are
continuously having unwanted and unplanned pregnancies & no group of men or government
has the legal right to decide or choose what women should do. However, while women go
through the abortion process they face many complications related to their health. In August, the
Argentine Senate rejected a bill for decriminalizing abortion in the nation win first 14 weeks of
pregnancy. But later within a week, Clairin newspaper reported that a 34-year-old woman died

due to septic shock after trying to abort her own pregnancy utilising parsley (When Abortion Is
Illegal, Women Rarely Die. But They Still Suffer, 2018). The women known as Elizabeth
became one of the 40 Argentine women who die every year due to unsafe abortion. The Section
1(1) of the Abortion act 1967 states that an individual won’t be guilty of an offence under the
law related to abortion when a pregnancy is terminated by a registered medial practitioner if two
registered medical practitioners are of the opinion designed in good faith that the pregnancy is
not more than 24week and that the continuity of the pregnancy may consist high risks. Illegal
abortion is really dangerous for women specially for young girls both mentally as well as
physically. It can develop complications in future pregnancy and can negatively affect the life of
women socially as well as physically.
When women go through this process there are high chances of resulting in death. The practise
of abortion is illegal and can even lead to death of women. Also, it highly decreases the value of
life of women. There are many other serious consequences exists which impact women health. It
may affect their immune system or due to illness other problems may occur. It is observed that
many times when feticide gets infected then there is no other option left rather than abortion. In
order to safe live of women it is necessary to undertake this process. Abortion that occurs
without any intervention is known as miscarriage. But when a critical situation arises, women
have to undergo this process. This also affects on value of life of women. In addition to it,
sometimes abortion saves life of women. It has been evaluated that women are mostly forced by
men and family to undertake abortion. Besides this, during abortion women mental as well as
physical health is highly affected. Women also have equal and moral rights to regarding their
living. Furthermore, in many countries government have formulated strict rules and regulations
which prevent women to undergo this process. This is done to prevent and prohibit them and
giving equal rights. For example- In UK under Abortion act 1967, abortion is considered as
illegal. They have considered this as illegal and dangerous for women. Moreover, in recent times
providing equal right to women has improved their social life.
Expert advice:
As per the views of Taylor and Wilson, (2019) Abortion have been treated as the unlawful and
unethical act under the law while in some circumstances there have been allowances mainly any
medical consequences. However, as per considering the human rights there must be proper
ascertainment over the physical and mental health of women. Thus, the capabilities of a women

to carry foetus without any medical problem will allow them to give birth. Unnithan and Dubuc,
(2018) stated that, there are issues relevant with the growth of foetus, health issues to the mother
than court imposes authority for legal abortion. In various economy law gives approval to
abortion such as family planning alliance Australia, Australian women’s health network etc. In
US it has been presented by the government that abortion is safe at the earlier pregnancy which
can be proceed and performed by medical practitioner after the approval from both parents.
According to Burton, (2018) there have been rights which are being awarded to women in
rejecting the pregnancy. Therefore, laws should not force women to risk their death and incur
any injury by having baby. In accordance with this, curing the individual rights and operations
which ascertains a proper judgement would bring value to the life. Aiken and et.al., (2019)
sought to determined that, it can be said that law prohibits abortion as the economy is against
mortality of abortion. In this case it has been analysed that the unsafe abortion is the main cause
of maternal mortality and morbidity. Moreover, allowing abortion will be based on the legal
consent and which must be in consideration of mother and father of baby.
CONLUSION
The essay summarized critical discussion over value of should be governed by individual
or law from where it is articulates governance of law over value of life aid sin setting limitation
for unethical practices in society. The essay focused on abortion law and religion according to
which it is identified that abortion as individual choice should be illegal because no person has
right to end life. The discussion of essay was supported by different abortion law and cases like,
Abortion Act (1967), Section 1 (1) of Abortion Act (1967), Royal College of Nursing of the UK
v DHSS 1981, etc. Thus, essay concluded with expert opinion where discussion is supported by
relevant articles, books and studies.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Aiken, A. R., and et.al., 2019. The impact of Northern Ireland’s abortion laws on women’s
abortion decision-making and experiences. BMJ Sex Reprod Health. 45(1). pp.3-9.
Burton, R., 2018. UK medical students should be taught how to manage unwanted pregnancy.
Bmj. 362. p.k3800.
Chemerinsky, E. and Goodwin, M., 2016. Abortion: A Woman's Private Choice. Tex. L. Rev..
95. p.1189.
Cosentino, C., 2015. Safe and legal abortion: An emerging human right? The long-lasting
dispute with state sovereignty in ECHR jurisprudence. Human Rights Law Review.
15(3). pp.569-589.
Hajek, A., 2014. Defining Female Subjectivities in Italy: motherhood and abortion in the
individual and collective memories of the 1970s women's movement in Bologna.
Women's History Review. 23(4). pp.543-
Parent, W.A., 2017. Privacy, morality, and the law. In Privacy (pp. 105-124). Routledge.
Rothman, B.K., 2016. Beyond mothers and fathers: Ideology in a patriarchal society. In
Mothering (pp. 139-157). Routledge.
Taylor, R. B. and Wilson, A. L., 2019. UK Abortion Law: Reform Proposals, Private Members’
Bills, Devolution and the Role of the Courts. The Modern Law Review. 82(1). pp.71-104.
Waldron, J., 2017. Is the rule of law an essentially contested concept (in Florida)?. In The Rule
of Law and the Separation of Powers (pp. 117-144). Routledge.
Online
When Abortion Is Illegal, Women Rarely Die. But They Still Suffer. 2018. [Online]. Available
through:https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/10/how-many-women-die-illegal-
abortions/572638/