International Journal of Law

Authors
Emandi Ranga Rao

Abstract
The right to life is a very broad concept and has been recognized under Indian Constitution. A person’s life begins at birth and extinguishes with death with the result the pre-birth and post-death these two stages are devoid of any existence. Globally, different Constitutions recognize the sanctity and importance of life; but they have completely failed to provide adequate protection to the life of foetus. Judicial pronouncements are also not conclusive, and vary in different jurisdictions. There have been several critical issues which underlie the problem of right of unborn child. These issues need to be addressed carefully so as to evolve a strategy to combat the problem. Whether unborn fetuses or a child in the mother’s womb is a living human being or not? If life begins only post birth would be an exaggeration to say that an unborn is worse off in his mother’s womb and susceptible and doomed to suffer all assaults without any respite. If we say that a foetus enjoys right to life, then will it affects the right of a pregnant woman to abort? Is a foetus to be recognized as a separate entity or a part of its mother? These questions are baffling the courts worldwide. An attempt is made to study critically the life of unborn child/fetus in the womb then examine the various rights of the unborn child/fetus and verification of different laws and its constitutional provisions in the context of female feticide.