The former head of Professional ethics at UCLan has called for abortion laws to be relaxed.

Currently, women must obtain permission from two doctors before an abortion can be carried out. Prof Ruth Chadwick, now the Director of the Centre for Economic and Social Aspects of Genomics at Cardiff University, has called for this to be scrapped, claiming it is an outdated practice and no longer appropriate.

Prof Chadwick said she feels the conditions set out in the 1967 Abortion Act do not sufficiently respect a woman’s freedom and right to take decisions regarding the fate of her pregnancy.

She was also one of 85 medical, law and ethical specialists who, in a letter to The Times newspaper, called for the qualifying conditions for abortions to be changed.

“Clearly, it is a serious decision that a woman must take regarding whether or not to have an abortion, but I do not think her choice needs to be vetted by two doctors,” she said.

“I am not aware of any other procedure which is carried out in the UK where two doctors must take a decision before it can go ahead.”

The group, which also included Kent law Professor Sally Sheldon and Professor of Ethics at Kings College London, Jonathan Glover, also called for restrictions on the where abortions can take place, to be altered in light of medical advances in the field.

They said that in some cases trained nurses should be allowed to conduct abortions.

Issues surrounding abortions have been widely debated since the Government decided to review its Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act.

The controversial Bill sets out proposals regarding the number of doctors needed to approve abortions, and states the procedure must be carried out within 24 weeks of a woman becoming pregnant.

The list of amendments tabled for discussion were set by a cross-party group of MPs and include allowing abortion-inducing drugs to be taken in the home.

If successful, they would be the first changes to the Abortion Act since 1990, when the 28-week maximum period for terminations was reduced to 24 weeks.

These plans are set to be vigorously opposed by pro-life politicians and campaign groups, who were happy to see a similar motion – cutting the abortion limit to 22 weeks – defeated in the Commons in May.

A spokesman for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children said: Each year more than 200,000 abortions are carried out in England and Wales and that cannot be ethical.”

“It is tragic because if ethics mean anything they must surely mean respect for human beings.”

“As an organisation we are opposed to abortions not to be unkind to women but to stop the ultimate unkindness, unkindness to children.”