BMJ  2007;335:953 (10 November), doi:10.1136/bmj.39388.430938.1F

Letters

Abortion limit debate

Viability is probably irrelevant

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Arguments to lower the gestational age limit at which abortion may be performed are based almost entirely on the idea of fetal viability—the gestational age at which, if the fetus were born prematurely, it would have a reasonable chance of survival.¹ The viability argument can be a convenient one for both sides of the debate, but it does not hold up to rational analysis. Suppose that, by some medical breakthrough, we were able to support spontaneously miscarried pregnancies, even at very early gestational ages—perhaps by suspending them in some life-sustaining fluid, in which they could fully develop as they would in the uterus. Would this be compelling evidence that we should abolish abortion altogether? Conversely, suppose some new virus epidemic sweeps through the nation, becoming endemic in all hospitals and special care baby units in which premature babies are cared for. The virus infects and kills all babies born before . . . [Full text of this article]

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