Member

This amendment asks the Committee to confront a question that is both profoundly simple and serious. Is there any point at all at which Parliament believes criminal liability might attach to actions taken by a pregnant woman with the intention of ending the life of a child who is fully viable and ready to be born? I believe the answer to be no, and that would contravene the moral intuition of the British people and the practice of most civilised nations. Civilisation is in part the drawing of lines. We draw lines to uphold justice, to protect the vulnerable, to ensure that rights are not trampled by power. We draw these lines to separate what society can condone from what it cannot.