Monday 31 December 2012

An unborn child has a legal personality in English law

One of the best-informed pro-life blogs is simply entitled ALDU - which stands for The Association of Lawyers for the Defence of the Unborn.

Last week it re-published an article by the late Gerald Wright QC, B.A., B.C.L.. Mr Wright was commenting on the abortion case, Paton v BPAS, in which William Paton, in May 1979 " ... sought an injunction to restrain the B.P.A.S. Trustees, and his own wife, from aborting a child, his child, which his wife was then expecting."

George Baker, the President of the Court, said in his judgement:
"The foetus cannot in English law, in my view, have a right of its own at least until it is born and has a separate existence from its mother."
Mr Wright disagreed. He says in his article:
"However despite this obiter dictum (for such it must be) it is submitted that a claim made on behalf of the unborn child, the "nasciturus" as it is sometimes called, would stand a very much better chance of success than did Mr. Paton's personal claim as husband and father-to-be. The arguments in favour of a claim so framed are outlined [in the full article]"  
Mr Wright's article is characteristically easy-to-read and erudite - much like ALDU's blog which I recommend to all pro-lifers.

Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
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