- 著者
-
齋藤 有紀子
- 出版者
- 日本法哲学会
- 雑誌
- 法哲学年報 (ISSN:03872890)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.2003, pp.43-55,234, 2004-10-20 (Released:2008-11-17)
- 参考文献数
- 14
In Japan, people's sexual and reproductive issues have been controlled by two laws, i. e., the Penal Code, which stipulates that abortion is illegal and the Eugenic Protection law, which is now revised as the Maternal Protection Law under the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Labour. The very existence of illegal abortion (prohibition of abortion) implies that in Japan people do not have the freedom to decide whether to have a child or not. This situation remains unchanged. Meanwhile, one of the slogans which was advocated more than 40 years ago by one of the most adical challenged people's groups in Japan was “Mothers, do not kill!” This slogan expresses challenged people's anger at the reality of the time when those parents raising challenged children kill their children by themselves or when those parents commit both infanticide and suicide so that the general public's sympathy is directed not to the children who have been killed but to the parents who have killed them. Now challenged people in Japan express repulsion at the ongoing practice of aborting challenged fetuses. They are focusing their attention on whether the concept of women's reproductive rights includes the right to abort challenged fetuses. They feel threatened by women's claim for the abortion of challenged fetus as their right. The debate on prenatal testing in Japan often focuses on the opposition between “women and challenged people” and “eugenic issues”, rather than the relationship between “women and fetuses, ” because of the aforementioned backgrounds of challenged people's movements. Now women's groups and challenged people's groups are starting to have joint discussions with the rights of both women and challenged people in scope. We need to notice these discussions, and seek ‘Justice’ to regulate technologies, which intrude into human reproductive and sexual issues.