<p> The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed a 22-year-old woman to terminate her 24-weeks pregnancy on the ground that it would endanger her life.<br /><br /></p>.<p>A bench of Justices S A Bobde and L Nageswara Rao perused the opinion of the medical board it had constituted to examine her health condition.<br /><br />The bench said in view of the opinion of Mumbai-based King Edward Memorial (KEM) Hospital’s medical board, it will be appropriate to allow the woman to terminate her pregnancy. The board has opined that the foetus besides suffering various anomalies, has shrunken lungs and lacks kidneys and continuing with the pregnancy would endanger the life of the mother.<br /><br />The bench also relied on earlier verdicts of the apex court and allowed the woman’s prayer to terminate her pregnancy. On February 5, the apex court had constituted a medical board to examine the “condition and advisability” of permitting medical termination of her pregnancy.<br /><br />She had approached the apex court seeking permission to terminate her pregnancy contending that the foetus does not have kidneys, besides having multiple anomalies.<br /><br />The law prohibits termination of pregnancy after 20 weeks, even if there is a fatal risk to the mother and the foetus. “The petitioner found out in the 21st week of her pregnancy that the foetus doesn’t have kidneys. She had to undergo two scans before this could be established and the foetus has multiple anomalies,” she had said in her petition.<br /><br /></p>
<p> The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed a 22-year-old woman to terminate her 24-weeks pregnancy on the ground that it would endanger her life.<br /><br /></p>.<p>A bench of Justices S A Bobde and L Nageswara Rao perused the opinion of the medical board it had constituted to examine her health condition.<br /><br />The bench said in view of the opinion of Mumbai-based King Edward Memorial (KEM) Hospital’s medical board, it will be appropriate to allow the woman to terminate her pregnancy. The board has opined that the foetus besides suffering various anomalies, has shrunken lungs and lacks kidneys and continuing with the pregnancy would endanger the life of the mother.<br /><br />The bench also relied on earlier verdicts of the apex court and allowed the woman’s prayer to terminate her pregnancy. On February 5, the apex court had constituted a medical board to examine the “condition and advisability” of permitting medical termination of her pregnancy.<br /><br />She had approached the apex court seeking permission to terminate her pregnancy contending that the foetus does not have kidneys, besides having multiple anomalies.<br /><br />The law prohibits termination of pregnancy after 20 weeks, even if there is a fatal risk to the mother and the foetus. “The petitioner found out in the 21st week of her pregnancy that the foetus doesn’t have kidneys. She had to undergo two scans before this could be established and the foetus has multiple anomalies,” she had said in her petition.<br /><br /></p>