ABSTRACT
According to the liberal theory of abortion, abortion is always permissible, whatever the state of fetal development. This view emphasizes the freedom of choice of the mother and the right of a woman to make decisions that affect her body. An intermediate approach between the liberal and conservative approaches is that abortion is ethically permissible up to a specified stage of fetal development or for some moral reasons that are believed to be sufficient to justify the performance of abortions under special circumstances. Such a view was framed in the leading 1973 American case of Roev. Wade and its companion from the same year, Doe v. Bolton. In Canada, the prohibition against attempting to procure the abortion is enacted in the 1869 Act Respecting Offences Against the Person. This prohibition made the abortion of a 'quick fetus' a crime punishable by life imprisonment. In 1892, the same prohibition was incorporated into the Criminal Code, and survived there until 1969.
