INTRODUCTION

The field of human reproduction continues to challenge both the medicolegal and ethical boundaries of common experience. In this chapter the issues relating to abortion and contraception will be summarised and the legal framework under which rulings have been made in relation to fertility treatments will be discussed.

ABORTION

It is a criminal offence contrary to the Offences against the Person Act 1861 and the Abortion Act 1967 (as amended) for any person ‘…with intent to procure the miscarriage of any woman, whether she be or be not with child …’ unless this is carried out under the specific conditions laid down by the Abortion Act.

There has been substantial legal debate over the definition of ‘miscarriage’. Some authorities hold the view that as soon as the ovum is fertilised it is ‘carried’ in the woman's body. This would effectively make postcoital contraception illegal unless carried out in accordance with the Abortion Act. Others take the view that it is only truly carried and thus capable of miscarriage from the time of implantation. In practice the Attorney General's statement in 1983 which favoured the implantation argument means that no prosecution will result from postcoital contraception. Indeed post coital contraceptives are now available as over the counter medicines from pharmacies in the UK.