A single-judge bench of the Delhi High Court, presided by Justice Pratibha M Singh, allowed a woman to undergo termination of pregnancy at 33 weeks.
While passing the order, the court said: “The Court comes to the conclusion that the mother’s choice is ultimate. Considering this, the Court holds that the medical termination be allowed. The petitioner is permitted to undergo termination immediately at the LNJP Hospital or any other hospital of her choice.”
The court further observed, “Cases like these highlight the severe dilemma that a woman has to undergo. With the emergency of modern technology, the issues around abortion and termination are bound to become more difficult.”
The Delhi High Court had on Monday reserved its order on the petition by the 26-year-old woman, seeking to terminate her 33-week pregnancy on account of the foetus suffering from certain cerebral abnormalities.
Justice Prathiba M Singh, while clarifying that she was not taking any view at the moment, also expressed her “ethical concern” in the matter and pondered upon the use of technology to detect any abnormalities in a foetus and thus, have only “prefect children”.
“There is one ethical concern that the court is thinking of and that is with technology. It is actually very easy to detect a number of abnormalities as of today. We are now almost talking of a full-term pregnancy (in this case),” the court said.
“So I am not taking any view either way but I am just saying that are we looking at a society which only has perfect children?…If the means are provided, should the parents then have the choice of not having the child at all,” the court questioned.
After hearing the petitioner as well as her husband and the doctors concerned, the court had said it would pass an order on Tuesday morning.
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