Voluntary interruption of pregnancy in Europe: medico-legal issues and ethical approach to the regulation.
The legislative criteria of the various European countries, as far as voluntary interruption of pregnancy is concerned, differ in the levels of severity employed by the law of the single nations. The authors analyze the legislation of some of European countries and, as a result, they identify countries that may be defined as more tolerant and others where the law is more restrictive. Italy is to be dealt with separately, because its legislation as regards this subject presents a greater interpretative ambiguity. In the end they analyze religious attitudes underlying the laws on voluntary interruption of pregnancy, because of the suspicion that the teachings of both Catholic and Protestant theology have influenced the differences in the quality of the law in force as regards termination of pregnancy is certainly well-grounded, and on the other hand the philosophy of law certainly owes its meditation both to theology and to the teachings of the Catholic Church.
Molinelli
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Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy. dott.molinelli@libero.it
Picchioni
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Celesti
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D000028:Abortion, Induced / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002835:Christianity; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011247:Pregnancy; D012926:Social Control, Formal