A jurisprudential analysis on abortions: A perspective from natural law and sociological school of law

Abstract

Abortion is a controversial subject because people can argue both for and against legalizing it and the arguments could be made in in equally convincing manner. It concerns not only the rights of a mother but of an unborn child as well. Many countries have introduced different grounds on which a legal abortion may be allowed. Therefore, it becomes important to explore from some jurisprudential perspectives whether legalizing abortions are permitted or not. This article focuses on two such theories, natural law and the sociological school of law. Both natural law and sociological school of law offer very much a contrasting viewpoints regarding the legalization of abortions. Natural law, focusing more on the moral aspects of law vehemently refuses the idea of allowing for abortions and it can be seen somewhat extreme. In contrast, sociological school of law takes a more pragmatic view and focusing on social engineering tries to bring about the best the law can be. However, even the sociological school of law finds it difficult to give an exact answer to the question, hence it becomes a case of circumstances, where abortions are permitted on a limited number of grounds and deciding on those grounds then becomes the duty of the law and policy makers of the country who have the balance out the competing interest of the relevant stakeholders.