Surgical abortion at twenty weeks: is morality determined solely by the outcome?

A strong body of opinion contends that late terminations of pregnancy are better carried out by surgical methods. We show that the suggested advantages of greater safety and patient acceptance are based on out-of-date or inaccurate (biased) data. The advantages of medical methods are, however, equal...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Lilford, R. J. (Author) ; Johnson, N. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: BMJ Publ. 1989
In: Journal of medical ethics
Year: 1989, Volume: 15, Issue: 2, Pages: 82-85
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Summary:A strong body of opinion contends that late terminations of pregnancy are better carried out by surgical methods. We show that the suggested advantages of greater safety and patient acceptance are based on out-of-date or inaccurate (biased) data. The advantages of medical methods are, however, equally unproven. However, we argue that the adverse emotional and symbolic effects of late surgical termination have moral force. We therefore contend that in the absence of strong patient preference, medical termination is the preferable method; and will remain of that opinion unless clear demonstration of the greater safety of surgical methods can be made at some future date.
ISSN:1473-4257
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of medical ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1136/jme.15.2.82