Member

I suggest that both defences reflect circumstances which will be understood and accepted by many, perhaps most, of our fellow citizens. I also suggest that there are many circumstances which would not secure general acceptance, albeit they would be allowed under Clause 191: for example, the mother’s dismay at the gender of the birth; the fact that the mother feared that the birth might disturb her employment, a holiday or moving houses; financial pressures; or the breakdown in the mother’s relations with a former partner, perhaps the father of the child. If Clause 191 is allowed to pass unamended, these and similar reasons would be treated as lawful justification of killing a child right up to the moment of birth. I do not believe that such an outcome is right, I do not think that our fellow citizens would accept it, and I do not think that we in Parliament should permit it.