XN000022-1972-03-15 — Page 43

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Wednesday, March 15, 1972

OFFENCES AGAINST THE PERSON (AMENDMENT) BILL

To Be Given Two Years' Trial

The Attorney General, the Hon. D.T.E. Roberts, today accepted a suggestion

by the Hon. Sir Yuet-keung Kan that the Offences Against the Person (Amendment)

Bill, 1972 should be given a life of two years and that it should cease to

have effect unless the Council by resolution extended the period of its

operation.

Mr. Roberts was speaking in the resumed debate on the Bill at

this afternoon's meeting of the Legislative Council.

He said much can be done to prevent the abuse of the bill by a

careful control of the hospitals and clinics in which therapeutic abortions

will be permitted.

"If this Bill is enacted, a close watch will be kept by the Director

of Medical and Health Services on its operation," he said.

Mr. Roberts hoped that it would not be thought that the Bill in any

way sought to encourage easy abortion.

"Any deliberate termination of a pregnancy which does not fall within

the conditions prescribed by the Bill will remain a criminal offence," he said.

"Even in circumstances in which the Bill permits an abortion, it

will remain for the individual to decide on whether or not she will allow it,"

the Attorney General added.

Earlier, the Hon. Sir Yuet-keung Kan had suggested that the bill,

if passed into law, should be allowed to "run initially for a trial period

of say, two years."

This, he said, was to calm genuine fear among certain sections of

the community that the bill would lend itself to "rampant abuse."

/He