was the only way to stop a pregnancy, which would usually be from a scandalous affair or relationship. Needless to say, these methods were very crude and must have caused intense pain for the mother. It was also very dangerous, because the clinical proced

is necessary in one of the following is the cases: risk to the life of the mother to prevent grave permanent injury to the physical or mental health of the mother risk of injury to the physical or mental health of the mother greater than if the pregnancy was terminated risk of injury to the physical or mental health of existing (i.e. born) children substantial risk of the child being born seriously handicapped in an emergency - to save the mothers life in an emergency - to prevent grave permanent injury to the physical or mental health of the mother Those are the current regulations concerning abortion in this country. However there is much contention about the moral and ethical aspects of the termination. There are organisations on both sides, fighting for the baby's life as well as the mother's choice. From a religious viewpoint the churches are steadfastly against the idea. In a recent sermon in France, Pope John Paul reiterated his absolute refusal to allow abortion, sayin!

ures were not advanced, and if some of the foetus was left in the womb then the woman would suffer from extreme poisoning which could be fatal. This law stood unchanged but in 1938 a gynaecologist was acquitted of an illegal abortion he had performed on a girl who had been raped. The court accepted that a woman's mental and physical state should be considered when deciding to abort. This set a precedent and was accepted as a amendment to the previous law. The situation was clarified under the Abortion Act of 1967 that was recently further clarified in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act of 1990. The situation today regarding abortion is as follows: A doctor may abort a pregnancy if they and a colleague believe that it !

g "Every human being who is conceived has the right to exist, because the life which is given no longer belongs" to those who conceived it, he said. Whilst the church's condemnation is steadfast, the evidence that lies in the Bible in inconclusive. At the time when the Bible was written, abortion was widely practised in spite of heavy penalties. The Assyrian code prohibited abortion with this statement: "Any woman who causes to fall what her womb holds ... shall be tried, convicted and impaled upon a stake and shall not be buried." Assyrian law gave the foetus more value than the woman. However, in the Hebrew society of time there were no specific laws against abortion. This was chiefly because the Hebrews placed a higher value on women than did their neighbours. There a

Some common words found in the essay are:
John Paul, Whilst Christian, Catholic Church, Embryology Act, Person Act, Abortion Abortion, Catholic Conference, John Connery, Human Rights, Roman Catholic, physical mental, mental health, physical mental health, injury physical mental, injury physical, mental health mother, health mother, human life, catholic church, pregnancy terminated, risk injury, risk injury physical, mother pregnancy, health mother pregnancy, grave permanent,
Approximate Word count = 1677
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)