Globally, abortion mortality accounts for approximately 13% of all maternal mortality. Unsafe abortion procedures, untrained abortion providers, restrictive abortion laws and high maternal mortality and morbidity from abortion tend to occur together. Unplanned and unwanted pregnancies constitute a serious public health responsibility. While fertility has declined by half in developing countries, the motivation to control and space births has risen faster than the rate of contraceptive use. Preventing maternal mortality and morbidity from abortion in countries where these remain high is a matter of good public health policy and medical practice, and constitutes an important part of safe motherhood initiatives. A range of positive steps has been taken to reduce deaths and morbidity from abortion in a growing number of countries over the past 15 years. Making abortion legal is an essential prerequisite in making it safe. In this respect, changing the law does matter and assertions to the contrary are ill conceived and unsupported in practice. Although, in many countries, trends towards safer abortion have often occurred prior to or in the absence of changes in the law, legal changes need to take place if safety is to be sustained for all women. Religious laws may also require attention when legal change is being contemplated. There are three main ways of approaching this problem: liberalizing the existing law within the penal or criminal code; partially or fully legalizing abortion through a positive law or a court ruling; and decriminalising abortion by taking it out of the law. Women's health groups and other advocates, parliamentarians and health professionals, can work together to support the right of women not to die from unsafe abortions and to ensure they receive treatment for complications. Committed doctors can make a difference by providing treatment for abortion complications, interpreting the law in a liberal way and providing safe services where these are legal as well as training providers in the safest techniques to reduce mortality and morbidity. Although law, policy and women's rights are central to this issue, making abortions safe is above all a public health responsibility of governments. Moreover, reducing maternal mortality by making abortions safe is also an important part of the international commitment made in Cairo in 1994 at the ICPD and reaffirmed at the Cairo meeting in 1999.
Health workers, like nurses are tasked to save the lives of their patients, however, there are instances in which health workers have to deal with difficult cases in taking a life, such as abortion. Scholars in the field of healthcare assert that abortion is morally justified if it is sought for health reasons. Nevertheless, there are a number of cases in which abortion is sought on other grounds other than health, such as the individual choice to do so. Can a nurse refuse to provide their professional service towards these people? This paper uses analytical and comparative methods to address ethical issues in abortion from the Islamic and conventional perspectives. Nursing implication: Since the nurses instruct and assist people in forming a decision as they engage in nursing care, utilising a comprehensive view of abortion based on Islamic sources would provide a foundation in Muslim perspectives as they interact with Muslim patients. The subject area to investigate the degree of knowledge among nurses regarding the Islamic moral judgement on this event is extremely recommended for future management.
Historical perspective of terminations of unwanted pregnancies in the UK. Moral and ethical considerations imposed by established church's teachings becoming increasingly in conflict with the wishes and expectations of a more secular society. Recognition that illegal abortion was, as a matter of fact available, at great risk to vulnerable girls and women. Eventually public demand and a radical and reforming government led to the current Statutory Framework. Statutory provisions: Offences against the Person Act 1861, Sections 58 and 59; Infant Life Preservation Act 1929 Section 1. Recognition of the limited flexibility allowed by the law in the original restrictive statutory framework. The direction to the jury in July 1938 by Macnaghten J in the case of R. v. Bourne [1939] 1 KB 687, where an eminent obstetrician was acquitted after carrying out an abortion on a young rape victim. Then the modern statutory provisions: Abortion Act 1967, amended by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990. The statutory framework provides for healthcare professionals not to have to take part in terminations if they have a conscientious objection to doing so. While there are still fierce challenges from moral pressure groups when any changes in the detail of the law are proposed--such as reducing the maximum gestation period for a lawful termination--as a whole society seems to have accepted the current law. Issues affecting doctors who consider and provide terminations; current medico-legal problems relating to wanted pregnancies that have been lost by reason of clinical negligence, and unwanted children that have been born by reason of clinical negligence.
The concept of 'unwanted pregnancy' is a recent in human history and is associated with social stresses of modern life. The purposes of the law, maqasid al shari'at, and its principles, qawa'id a shari'at, focus on preventing 'unwanted pregnancy', protecting the rights of the fetus and infant, and mitigating the adverse effects of 'unwanted pregnancy' by social measures. 'Unwanted pregnancy' is associated with general social determinants (hedonistic life styles, sexual transgression, addiction to drugs, fear of poverty, and low female status) and specific antecedent causes (sexual crimes, egoistic greed, maternal/fetal disease, and gender discrimination). It is prevented by sexual hygiene, marriage, contraception, deterring sexual crimes, and raising the status of women. The adverse sequelae of 'unwanted pregnancy' (feticide, infanticide, or child abuse and neglect) can be prevented by defending the basic human right of the fetus and infant to life, promoting social institutions for child welfare (nuclear family, extended family, foster care, and open adoption). Closed adoption is forbidden by Law but care in a foster home is allowed and is encouraged if the nuclear and extended families are unwilling or are unable to care for children. Abortion at any stage of pregnancy is a crime against humanity. It is not a solution to the problem but is part of the problem. It will encourage more 'unwanted pregnancies'.
Historical perspective of terminations of unwanted pregnancies in the UK. Moral and ethical considerations imposed by established church's teachings becoming increasingly in conflict with the wishes and expectations of a more secular society. Recognition that illegal abortion was, as a matter of fact available, at great risk to vulnerable girls and women. Eventually public demand and a radical and reforming government led to the current Statutory Framework. Statutory provisions: Offences against the Person Act 1861, Sections 58 and 59; Infant Life Preservation Act 1929 Section 1. Recognition of the limited flexibility allowed by the law in the original restrictive statutory framework. The direction to the jury in July 1938 by Macnaghten J in the case of R. v. Bourne [1939] 1 KB 687, where an eminent obstetrician was acquitted after carrying out an abortion on a young rape victim. Then the modern statutory provisions: Abortion Act 1967, amended by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990. The statutory framework provides for healthcare professionals not to have to take part in terminations if they have a conscientious objection to doing so. While there are still fierce challenges from moral pressure groups when any changes in the detail of the law are proposed--such as reducing the maximum gestation period for a lawful termination--as a whole society seems to have accepted the current law. Issues affecting doctors who consider and provide terminations; current medico-legal problems relating to wanted pregnancies that have been lost by reason of clinical negligence, and unwanted children that have been born by reason of clinical negligence.