Abortion Law in Malaysia: Time to Review?
- DOI
- 10.2991/978-2-38476-154-8_9How to use a DOI?
- Keywords
- Abortion; Malaysia; Legality; Penal Code; Termination of Pregnancy
- Abstract
The legality of abortion varies among countries as abortion remains one of the most controversial and bitterly contested topics. The abortion debate on the right to life, right to choose, as well as the costs and benefits of abortion is rather polarised. The issue becomes more complex as different religious traditions hold different views on the commencement of life. Nevertheless, there has been an increasing number of countries taking a more liberal approach. At present, Malaysia being a multi-racial and multi-religious country generally prohibits abortion except in certain circumstances specified in the Malaysian Penal Code. With abortion rights gaining momentum in the society, there may be a need to reconsider the policy costs and benefits which raises the issue on whether Malaysia should review its current legal position on abortion. This article aims to examine whether Malaysia should adopt a more liberal approach towards abortion, especially on the scope of the circumstances that permit abortion. The article adopts the doctrinal research method, in which comparative legal analysis of the abortion laws of selected countries such as Singapore, United States and United Kingdom is conducted. For this purpose, the relevant statutes, case laws, international conventions and guidelines will be examined.
- Copyright
- © 2023 The Author(s)
- Open Access
- Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.
Cite this article
TY - CONF AU - Belinda Jia Hui Chow AU - Gary Kit Min Ng AU - Chee Ying Kuek PY - 2023 DA - 2023/12/05 TI - Abortion Law in Malaysia: Time to Review? BT - Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Law and Digitalization 2023 (ICLD 2023) PB - Atlantis Press SP - 144 EP - 154 SN - 2352-5398 UR - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-154-8_9 DO - 10.2991/978-2-38476-154-8_9 ID - Chow2023 ER -