Abortion in the preliminary draft of the new brazilian penal code: legal bioethical and reflections

Abstract

The termination of pregnancy is characterized as a controversial subject in which there is a conflict between fundamental and human rights and that the solution to this can only be given by the principle of proportionality. The Preliminary Draft of the Penal Code proposed by the Commission of Jurists at the Federal Senate changed the classification of the crime of abortion, bringing new hypotheses where the conduct is not characterized as a crime. The abortion of anencephalic fetus follows the position adopted by the Supreme Court, while the innovation is by permission of voluntary interruption of pregnancy until the twelfth week. This position is given by adopting the relational view of the beginning of human life, which happens only with the comprehension of the woman as part of the relationship between mother and child, and this time lapse is enough for making a conscious decision. The paper uses the scientific-deductive method with bibliographical research. The prohibition of abortion generates quite serious harm to society, constitutes a public health problem and should be reflected on the costs of attempts to put human life in such cases as an absolute right, and should follow the examples of foreign law with the conversion the project into law, allowing termination of pregnancy if the woman has no psychological conditions for motherhood.