Judgment, 12 February 1988.
The defendants were accused of performing illegal abortions.  The Court of First Instance at Ghent, Belgium, acquitted them on the ground that the abortions were justified because of "a state of emergency."  It reasoned that obeying the law in exceptional circumstances can have exorbitant consequences which the legislator could not have wanted in the present context of society.  It stated that, whereas family life and procreation used to be central values in society, the right to a decent human existence has, at present, primary importance.  It ruled that, in the present context of society, potential human life is a value that is not superior to the value of actualized life, given the fact that the future and the chances of development of potential human life are still uncertain. In November 1988, this decision was reversed and the defendants received one-month suspended sentences. See Revue de droit penal et de criminologie, No. 12, 1989, p. 1108.
D000024:Abortion, Illegal; D000028:Abortion, Induced; D001530:Belgium; D019049:Developed Countries; D004467:Economics; D005060:Europe; D005193:Family Planning Services; D007603:Jurisprudence; D011788:Quality of Life; D012946:Social Welfare
Abortion, Illegal; Abortion, Induced--legal aspects; Belgium; Court Decision; Developed Countries; Economic Factors; Europe; Family Planning; Fertility Control, Postconception; Quality Of Life; Social Welfare; Western Europe