Published: 2018-06-12

Remarks on the position of the Polish Gynaecological Society concerning the Abortion ban proposed in 2016

Joanna Banasiuk , Błażej Kmieciak , Andrzej Lewandowicz , Aleksander Stępkowski , Olaf Szczypiński
Zeszyty Prawnicze
Section: Disputare necesse est
https://doi.org/10.21697/zp.2018.18.1.10

Abstract

Summera

This paper refutes the arguments of the Polish Society of Gynaecologists and Obstetricians (Polskie Towarzystwo Ginekologów i Położników, PTGP) on the regulations proposed in the 2016 citizens’ Stop Abortion bill*. We address both the medical and legal issues raised by the PTGP. In their discussion of the medical arguments and clinical cases the PTGP cite outdated medical data on the risk of death for pregnant women with pulmonary hypertension, and they also disregard the current guidelines issued by the European Society of Cardiology. In addition the PTGP put forward a completely groundless claim that the citizens’ Stop Abortion bill would prohibit prenatal diagnosis for therapeutic purposes. Their position on prenatal diagnosis gives the impression that its purpose is exclusively therapeutic, whereas in reality it is often used as a key instrument in modern eugenics. Our legal argument provides a comprehensive response to the allegation that the regulations of the citizens’ bill ruled out the possibility of effective medical treatment to save the life of a pregnant woman. The article discusses the issue in a detailed way, demonstrating why the PTGP’s allegation is erroneous. The PTGP focuses its criticism on the concept of a ‘direct threat to the mother’s life,’ claiming that the requirement that the threat be ‘direct’ precluded early life-saving treatment for the mother. This argument is based on an inadmissible premise, that when applied to a threat to the mother’s life which puts her in a situation of necessity, the term ‘direct’ could be understood as analogous to the use of ‘direct’ in situations of necessity warranting self-defence against assault. However, the ‘directness’ of the threat in the former situation relates to its inevitability but need not mean that it is imminent. Therefore, contrary to the PTGP claim, the provisions of the Stop Abortion bill do not curtail a medical practitioner’s chances to administer life-saving treatment for a pregnant woman in a life-threatening condition.

 

* In the Republic of Poland a citizens’ bill may be brought to Sejm for the legislative procedure when a group of at least 100 thousand citizens submit a petition to Sejm requesting such a procedure for their bill. In 2016 450 thousand Polish citizens signed the petition asking Sejm to ban eugenic abortion

Keywords:

protection of human life in the prenatal stage, abortion, perinatal diagnostic tests, necessity, the physician’s professional liability, the citizens’ Stop Abortion bill.

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Citation rules

Banasiuk, J., Kmieciak, B., Lewandowicz, A., Stępkowski, A., & Szczypiński, O. (2018). Remarks on the position of the Polish Gynaecological Society concerning the Abortion ban proposed in 2016. Zeszyty Prawnicze, 18(1), 193–224. https://doi.org/10.21697/zp.2018.18.1.10

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