There is a real issue of consistency here. It is generally lawful in most states for a mother to have the life of her unborn terminated. If it is ok for the mother to authorise a termination, there is a logical difficulty in then making a major crime out of a third party doing something equivalent. Currently our unborn have the status of being their mother's chattel. It goes with the notion of abortion on demand.

naming an unborn child a fetus is simply dishonest. Anyone with half a conscience and brain who looks through a telescope knows that a baby is a baby. Denying Jews as people might of eased the conscience of the Germans but it is only the blind and ignorant that deny they are people. The killing of unborn babies shows that the morality of those supporting this barbarity is no difference to the latest Merkel import who drove a truck into a crowd in Germany today. Oh how easy it is to believe the dogmas of the secularist who don't want to take responsibility for their actions. Sickening that they use pseudo science instead of the truth.

Phanto,you tell me "You do not know when a child becomes a child and you will never know." If I can't recognise a child for the child it is, it's an optician I need! Who ever heard a woman announce she was having a "zygote", an "embryo" a "foetus" ? It is common parlance to describe a pregnant woman as "having a baby" ..or is "with child"! "All social engineering is preceded by verbal engineering" and there is no greater example of this than when people try to justify abortion! "Zygote" "embryo" "foetus" "baby" "infant" "child" "teenager" "adult" "senior citizen" ...are all terms used to indicate stages of human life. Now all you have to do Phanto is justify the taking of a human life! Mercifully capital punishment has been judged unjustified in this country...now all we need do is make it unjustified from the womb to the tomb !

Greg - if you are not aware, Queensland added a section to their Criminal Code back in 1997 along the lines of what you are wanting.

Section 313 Killing unborn child
(2) Any person who unlawfully assaults a female pregnant with a child and destroys the life of, or does grievous bodily harm to, or transmits a serious disease to, the child before its birth, commits a crime.
Maximum penalty—imprisonment for life.

Of course such a law is appropriate. And please note that the entity carried by a pregnant female is unambiguously referred to as a "child", and a child whose life can be "destroyed" or "killed" (as per the section heading).

Note too the potential penalty - up to life imprisonment - essentially the same penalty as for killing a born human being.

Yet this is in a State that turns a blind eye to perhaps 15 000 abortions – the intentional destruction of the lives of unborn children at the mother’s/parent’s request - each year.

Talk about a double standard. If a child in the womb is killed by an assailant, the assailant can get life in prison. But if the mother pays to have that exact same child killed by an abortionist then apparently that is okay.

This is madness.

Bren,

It is not OK, for "mothers to authorise" an abortion (if 'mother' is the correct word to describe such a person). In all states of Australia, abortion is subject to CRIMINAL LAW. Different states have conditions under which abortions may be performed, and the person who wants an abortion just doesn't rock up and get one. It requires more than one doctor and other health practitioners to make the decision. We haven't entirely reached the barbarity of abortion on demand. If women don't want a child, they should do something about it before one is conceived, as should the male they are involved with. Of course, none of this has anything to do with the article, but you brought it up, and I have to say that I am appalled by the casual discussions about killing that take place on OLO.

ttbn - In the ACT it is legal for women to have abortions up to birth for any reason. In Victoria it is legal to have abortions up to 24 weeks for any reason and in Tasmania it is legal for any reason up to 16 weeks. In these places abortion is no longer subject to criminal law.

So, yes women can just “rock up and get one.” Even in other States where the law has not been changed any woman who wants an abortion still gets one without any problems – so long as she can pay for it, at least.