te Braake T A
University of Amsterdam/Faculty of Law.
Med Law. 1999;18(4):607-12.
National abortion laws usually do not allow abortion when a foetus is independently viable, i.e. from a gestational age of about 24 weeks. Fetal anomalies, which may be a reason to seek abortion, are sometimes detected only in an advanced stage of pregnancy. National legislatures who want to allow 'late' abortion need to account for the protection the fetus may derive from the European Convention for the protection of human rights. As yet it remains unclear to what extent the fetus can in fact derive protection from the Convention, although several national abortion laws have been tested against it by the European Commission. The significance of the reports of the Commission on the question whether national legislation allowing abortion of a viable fetus is in conflict with the Convention, is explored. It is concluded that there is no European legal standard in terms of duration of pregnancy to which national legislatures are committed.
国家堕胎法通常规定，当胎儿能够独立存活时，即从大约孕24周起，不允许堕胎。可能成为寻求堕胎理由的胎儿异常情况，有时仅在妊娠晚期才能被检测出来。希望允许“晚期”堕胎的国家立法机构需要考虑到胎儿可能从《欧洲人权保护公约》中获得的保护。尽管欧洲委员会已依据该公约对若干国家的堕胎法进行了检验，但目前尚不清楚胎儿实际上能在多大程度上从该公约中获得保护。本文探讨了委员会关于允许对可存活胎儿进行堕胎的国家立法是否与该公约相冲突这一问题的报告的意义。得出的结论是，在妊娠时长方面不存在各国立法机构必须遵循的欧洲法律标准。
