Should it always be the pregnant woman's choice?
             When a minor becomes pregnant, is the decision to abort the pregnancy that of the parent or that of the mother-to-be? Could some cases warrant the decision to abort made by people other than the pregnant woman?
             These are serious cases as the story of a young mentally handicapped Italian girl illustrates. Laura, 13, from Pozzallo in Sicily, had been placed in the care of social services after being removed from her destitute mother. The juvenile court appointed the family doctor as legal guardian.
             Laura got up to mischief with a local boy and, faced with the prospects of the mentally ill girl giving birth, the doctor chose the abortion for the girl under his legal care. Because of her mental condition, she is unable to make a choice herself. The decision to abort was supported by Laura's mother and the social worker in charge of the case.
             The Vatican condemned the decision as a "Nazi horror" but applauded when Judge Daniela Di Sarno ruled that the girl would give birth.
             Abortion is the killing of the unborn human fetus to end a pregnancy. It has never been specifically legislated as unlawful in Australia.
             The question of when human life begins has traditionally been seen as central to the abortion debate, but it is doubtful that this question can ever be fully resolved. Some philosophers prefer to consider what it is that makes it wrong to kill a human being, then having defined this, see whether these reasons still logically apply to an unborn fetus.
             Some philosophers go so far as to argue that not only the fetus but even the newborn infant has no intrinsic right to life. This is interesting in that one of the strategies pursued strongly by anti-abortionists is the attempt to represent the unborn fetus as no different to the newborn child, with the implication that they consider the rights of the newborn child as self evident.
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