Mother’s Hardship in Therapeutic Abortion: Subjective or Objective

The Single Article of the Therapeutic Abortion Act specifies hardship of the mother as one of the necessary conditions for issuing abortion permission. The first question that strikes mind relates to the criterion of determining the hardship. In this regard, two approaches may be discerned: (1) hardship according to such objective criteria that are generally used to pinpoint hardship. This approach does not take into consideration bodily and mental differences of mothers in bearing severe situations. (2) hardship in accordance with subjective judgement of every individual depending on her personal conditions. Despite recognising particular and different situations of individuals, this approach turns hardship into a subjective matter. The question now is which of the two mentioned approaches is, practically and theoretically, defendable It should be noted that different situations of mothers have to be taken into account in the instantiation process of hardship. Accordingly, it seems, in line with most jurisprudential opinions, hardship is of a subjective nature. Although provisions of a list of illnesses of mother and foetus, that usually and objectively give rise to hardship and suffering, ishelpful for physicians in justifying their decisions to this effect, it should not stand in the way of taking into consideration subjective criteria by individuals in discerning the hardship. It appears that adoption of such an approach in the implementation of the Single Article of the Therapeutic Abortion Act is more in line with real needs of mothers and the society.

کلیدواژه ها:

Hardship ، Subjective Criterion ، Objective Criterion ، Therapeutic Abortion