Kommers, Donald P. --- "Autonomy, Dignity and Abortion" [2011] ELECD 384; in Ginsburg, Tom; Dixon, Rosalind (eds), "Comparative Constitutional Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Comparative Constitutional Law

Editor(s): Ginsburg, Tom; Dixon, Rosalind

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848445390

Section: Chapter 24

Section Title: Autonomy, Dignity and Abortion

Author(s): Kommers, Donald P.

Number of pages: 18

Extract:

24. Autonomy, dignity and abortion
Donald P. Kommers*



I INTRODUCTION
Autonomy and dignity are associated concepts variously invoked to justify a woman's deci-
sion to procure an abortion as well as to support legal measures to protect unborn life. Both
values are deeply rooted in constitutional democracies devoted to the protection of individual
liberty and the promotion of justice. Indeed, as the rights of speech, privacy and association
demonstrate, they are multi-faceted concepts that overlap and collide in the fundamental
rights jurisprudence of modern constitutional courts. Especially is this so on abortion. In the
following comparative analysis of abortion law in Ireland, Germany and the United States,
we shall find that each country has defined these values differently. Depending on how a soci-
ety ­ or law ­ views unborn life, the two values often clash. As the constitutional jurispru-
dence of the United States, Germany and Ireland show, autonomy and dignity spar with one
another when a woman's `right' to reproductive freedom clashes with the `right' to life of the
unborn.1 In this chapter, I examine how three constitutional democracies have sought to
balance and define the values of dignity and autonomy in settling or reconciling the compet-
ing claims of pro-choice and pro-life interests. Accordingly, the analysis below is mainly
descriptive, although its normative implications will merit some attention in the concluding
section of this chapter.
Why have I chosen to focus on Ireland, Germany and the United States? Economy is one
reason. Limiting ...