Examine woman seeking to terminate 23-week-old foetus: HC tells JJ docs

Mumbai: A 20-year-old woman has approached the Bombay high court, seeking to abort her 23-week-old foetus. She has submitted the medical report of a private hospital to show abnormalities linked to the foetus. The vacation bench of the high court has constituted an expert committee of doctors from J.J. Hospital to examine the woman. According to the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, the permission of a high court is necessary to abort a foetus over 20 weeks’ old.

According to her petition, she has produced her sonography report of May 10, 2018, given by Dr Farzan Deshmukh and Dr A.F. Deshmukh, which says that the foetus has heart disease and his brain is not developed. The woman has prayed to the court to allow her to abort the foetus because chances of the child surviving after birth are rare. she has also attached past Supreme Court and high court judgments that favor such terminations.

Justice Prakash Naik and Justice M.S. Karnik, after perusing the medical report and the Supreme Court judgment, directed the dean of J.J. Hospital to constitute a team comprising the head of the gynaecology department, paediatric or cardiac surgeon, radiology and psychiatry department, neurological and other experts as the dean may deem appropriate, and submit a report before court.