Here we have a government that only does controversy when it involves playing Dr Frankenstein with nature, so what outcome did we expect of the abortion debate?

Shunning the views of some health professionals, church leaders and, for what it's worth, us, the general public, the call to lower the abortion limit from 24 weeks to 22 was trounced.

During the Commons debate, one MP spoke of her account of a late abortion when she was a nurse.

She said: "I stood with him in my arms for seven minutes while he gasped for his breath. A botched abortion, which became a live birth, became a death seven minutes later."

Aside from diluting the moral fibres of society and family, what the House of Commons seemed to be lacking on Tuesday was common sense.

Termination should be dropped to 16 to 18 weeks, by which time, some four months into a nine-month pregnancy, a woman has had plenty of time to decide whether to continue carrying her child.

In 90 per cent of cases, some pre-birth conditions such as spina bifida are detected through ultrasound at 18 weeks. In these extreme cases, where such a condition is left undetected, or the foetus is a result of rape, each case should be assessed separately, and the 24-week limit may be exercised at the doctor's discretion.

However, to allow a woman to abort more than halfway through a healthy pregnancy is, in my opinion, heinous.

A baby is fully formed at 12 weeks and, at 16 to 17 weeks, a termination requires an injection into the heart, chest or amniotic sac to make sure it is not delivered alive. Alternatives include poisoning or chemically burning.

Essentially, this is killing an unborn child, as opposed to stopping the formation of an undeveloped foetus.

When abortion was first legalised in Britain in 1968, there was little knowledge in comparison to that we have today, regarding either the technology or biology. Hence the limit was as high as 28 weeks.

Now 2008, there is no excuse. At 24 weeks, a baby is "viable", meaning it is thought to have a chance of survival if born. The care we have today in neonatal units means that more babies born early do survive. How is this legally moral, when it is clearly criminal?