Nishka Srinivas Veluvali
Published On: January 01, 2022 at 18:33 IST
The Delhi High Court permits a 28 – week pregnant woman to go ahead with the medical termination of the pregnancy on the grounds of substantial foetal abnormality and stated that,
“Reproductive choice is a dimension of personal liberty which is enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution.”
The Plea filed by the woman to undergo the procedure was heard by Justice Jyoti Singh which stated that permitting this pregnancy to continue will have very detrimental consequences on the Petitioner’s mental health and the freedom to decide to continue this pregnancy or not should not be taken away from her.
The Court observed that the foetus lacked compatibility of healthy and normal life as per the medical experts. The medical experts also informed the point that the child would require cardiac surgery at the initial stage of life as well as in his late adolescents, making him/her completely dependant on the medical care and clinical condition for entire life.
The Court further on noted that the child might face intra and post operative complications and it may advance to more complexities that would have adverse impact on the child’s life.
The experts also opined that the child might face average physical growth only with the caution that the surgery is successful.
The Court in its Order on 31 December inferred that, “The petitioner, in my view, is justified in contending that continuing with the pregnancy, once it is known that the foetus suffers from a rare congenital heart disease, which is a ‘substantial foetal abnormality’, with attendant complications and risks, would have a deleterious impact on the mental health of the petitioner”.
