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E-book Repealing the 8th

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Penilaian

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The 8th Amendment to the Irish Constitution was ratified in 1983,1and provides—in the form of Article 40.3.3—that:The State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right.At first glance, the 8th Amendment may seem innocuous or merely aspirational. However, over time this provision, which could have been read in dozens of ways, has come to ground a near-absolute prohibition on abortion in Irish law.2The 8th Amendment treats the foetus as a constitutional person, separate from the pregnant person to the extent that it is entitled to its own legal representation, and with a right to life exactly equivalent to hers.3 The constitutional concept of ‘life’ has been interpreted restrictively. Rather than recognise the 8th Amendment as protecting life in all its richness and depth, successive courts and governments have been content to assume that it only protects the bare condition of being alive.4 Those other rights that confer dignity and meaning on life—rights to privacy, equality, bodily autonomy and so on—have been excised from the law on abortion by prevailing interpretations of the 8th Amendment.The moment we become pregnant, our constitutional rights are subordinated to the right to life of the unborn and circumscribed by the constitutional status of ‘mother’.5 There are two points here. First, the Amendment’s concentration on life as mere survival has stripped the ‘as far as practicable’ clause of the 8th Amendment of its potential to rationalise abortion law and policy in Ireland. If the state’s obligation is merely to keep both pregnant person and foetus alive, real questions of practicability—of how much pain, suffering or risk the pregnant person can be compelled to endure—carry no constitutional weight. Ordinary constitutional principles of proportionality do not apply. The only limit is that the state need not do what is ‘futile’ to preserve foetal life.6 So the 8th Amendment has provided cover for drastic intrusions into pregnant people’s private lives.

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Ketersediaan

Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

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No. Panggil

363.46 DEL r

Penerbit

London : Policy Press., 2018

Deskripsi Fisik

166 hlm

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

9781447347545

Klasifikasi

363.46

Tipe Isi

text

Tipe Media

computer

Tipe Pembawa

online resource

Edisi

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Subjek

Abortion

Info Detail Spesifik

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Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

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Versi lain/terkait

Lampiran Berkas

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