Research On The Legal Issues About The Conflict Of The Couple's Reproductive Rights After Wife's Pregnancy

Although the issue of reproductive rights of couples has changed for thousands of years,the conflict between husband and wife on those rights has never changed.From the primitive society,slave society,feudal society to modern society,although the right-holder of the reproductive rights turns back and forth between husband and wife,the conflict between husband and wife on those rights has never been solved.In a macroscopic view,the conflict between husband and wife on those rights can be divided into two kinds of conflicts.The former is the conflict before pregnancy,and the latter is the conflict after pregnancy.Since the conflict before pregnancy is only a problem about whether the couple has reached fertility consensus,this conflict often does not involve a physical coercion of the wife.Therefore,this study does not pay much attention to this issue.The conflict after pregnancy not only involves difficult and complex theoretical issues,but also is the main problem that the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of the Marriage Law of the People's Republic of China(III)(hereinafter referred to as Interpretation of the Marriage Law(III))Article 9 aims to solve.According to the specific situation of our country,there are only two laws,The Law on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women and Population and Family Planning Law,having articles about reproductive rights before 2011,but due to the potential defects of the two laws and differences in understanding the specific provisions of the two laws among local courts,local courts often come to different conclusions in dealing with the similar problems about the conflict between husband and wife on reproductive rights.According to relevant scholars' statistics,there were ten cases concerning reproductive rights disputes before 2011.Among the ten cases,the husband's reproductive rights were affirmed in six cases and were denied in four cases.Both were evenly matched.Please note that even in the six cases that have confirmed the husband's reproductive rights,the courts in various localities had different views.Some courts supported the husband's claim for damages,but some did not.Other courts settled the cases by mediation.Given the disordered situation,the Supreme People's Court promulgated the "Interpretation of the Marriage Law(III)" on August12,2011.The ninth article of the judicial interpretation addresses the issue of the conflict between husband and wife on reproductive rights after pregnancy.After the judicial interpretation was promulgated,the caliber of the various local courts dealing with disputes related to reproductive rights was unified.It is worthy of affirmation that this judicial interpretation has a clear-cut theoretical position,resolves disputes decisively and has clear means of relief in solving the conflict between husband and wife on reproductive rights.It is noteworthy that although this judicial interpretation has many merits and provides trial guidelines for local courts to handle related cases,it tends to simplify complex issues.The biggest problem with this provision is that it fails to make a reasonable distinction between the effectiveness of the exercise of the reproductive rights of pregnant women and the reasons for their exercise and between the absoluteness of the validity and the affordability of the responsibility.It can be seen that although Article 9 of the Interpretation of the Marriage Law(III)has achieved unity in the trial,the legal issues in this issue have not been fully resolved.The reproductive rights of pregnant women are characterized by a privilege and thus their effectiveness is exclusive,but the exclusivity of effectiveness does not mean that the reasons for making the decision are also exclusive.Therefore,this study divides the conflict of reproductive rights of couples into two basic types based on whether there is fertility consensus before pregnancy.Through the theoretical analysis of the reproductive rights of pregnant women and analyzing the classification of different situations,this study aims to find a more optimized way to solve the problem of conflicting reproductive rights of couples after pregnancy.That is,if there is fertility consensus between the couple before pregnancy,the wife can arbitrarily terminate the pregnancy and the husband may obtain compensation for the damage according to fertility consensus before the pregnancy;if the couple does not have fertility consensus before the pregnancy,the wife can also arbitrarily stop the pregnancy and the husband cannot get damages for any reason.