Examine woman: SC to KEM hospital TWO LIVES ON THE LINE AND A BIG ISSUE ON HAND

The Supreme Court asked KEM hospital on Friday to constitute a medical board to examine a 22-year-old old woman from Navi Mumbai, who has moved the Apex court for permission to abort her malformed foetus. A bench of justice SA Bobde and justice LN Rao asked the board to submit a report before Tuesday, the next date of hearing in the matter.

The petitioner’s counsel Sneha Mukherjee told the court about the deformity in the foetus and said urgent medical intervention was required to save the mother. Solicitor general Ranjit Kumar, who assisted the bench on an earlier occasion in a similar case, was also asked to be present for the next hearing.

The petitioner has taken legal recourse because the law does not allow termination of pregnancy beyond 20 weeks. However, in the present case, the 23-week-old fetus does not have kidneys and suffers from Bilateral Renal Agenesis.

This is the fourth case in recent years that has reached the top court where a pregnant mother wants the court’s intervention to abort her pregnancy.

Last month, the same SC bench had allowed a Mumbai woman to abort her foetus after a medical panel affirmed there was little chance of the child’s survival and keeping it would endanger the mother’s life.

Similarly, in the other two cases – one of a minor rape victim from Gujarat and the other a rape victim from Mumbai – the court approved abortion only after seeking medical opinion.