HUMAN DIGNITY AND CAPABILITIES APPROACH: REFRAMING THE IDEA OF HUMAN DIGNITY IN THE ABORTION JURISPRUDENCE OF GERMANY AND USA
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Abstract
In the United States, as Reva Siegel recently noted, the right to abortion has been increasingly linked by pivotal justices to the idea of individual human dignity. There is emphasis on pluralistic formulation of dignity, based on autonomy and the construction of personhood through choices, thereby reinforcing a pregnant woman’s claim to self -determination. Similarly, the German Federal Constitutional Court (GFCC) affirmed that “access to abortion was supported or indeed probably required by the human dignity of the pregnant woman...her right to life and physical integrity, her right to personality.” This connection between ideas of human dignity and right to access abortion also finds support in broader comparative context, across jurisdictions such as Canada, Brazil, Australia, and Colombia.
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