Woolnough Again

In another peculiar inconsistency, the Report uses the phrase "serious danger to the life of the pregnant woman" in its proposed law (p.283), despite its lengthy quotation from Mr Justice Chilwell in the Woolnough case about the difficulty of defining what "serious danger" means (cf. pp. 141-142). The Report doesn't just make mistakes; it repeats them.

Inconsistencies and ambiguities abound in this Report. I believe that it will solve nothing and please no one. It could not be otherwise when the Commission interposed compromise between clearly stated facts and the law relating to them.

— Fr. Owen O'Sullivan