3 months - The foetus squirms as it flexes its muscles. The heartbeat can be detected and the foetus looks clearly like a baby. Christians might see this as the beginning of life as it looks like a tiny human baby and they can hear the baby’s heartbeat.
4 months - The head has distinct human features and may have hair. The skin is pink and the bones are forming joints. The foetus is moving around in the womb and has developed feeling. If an abortion was to be carried out now the foetus would be able to feel pain and Christians view this as wrong.
5 months – The foetus is developing rapidly and is very active. This could be thought of as the start to life as the mother can feel the baby moving inside her. The foetus is also able to hear sounds from outside the womb.
6 months - Eyes may open. All systems are formed and are growing in size. The foetus’ senses are developing, it may clench the umbilical cord and begins to recognize sound. Life could begin here; the foetus forms a bond with the mother and has reached fetal viability, meaning it could survive outside the womb if born.
7-9 months - Growing in size and fat is deposited to help survival at birth. The foetus is defiantly able to survive outside the womb and is only inside the mother so it has a better chance of surviving when it is born; it is fully developed and is defiantly able to be seen as a living being.
Pg 4
Part A:
Section 2
Biblical and Church teachings about abortion
Christian teachings on abortion are very complicated because there are no actual teachings about abortion in the bible, although there are many references that refer to the sanctity of life and agape, and are a guideline to Christian thoughts on abortion.
They are also guided by the early church teachings to help make a responsible decision on the topic of abortion.
References to abortion in Christian literature:
The Bible states that life begins at conception, when the growing embryo is in the mothers’ womb, so the removal of the baby would be seen as murder.
The earliest specific written references to abortion in Christian literature are those in the Didache and the Epistle of Barnabas. The Didache combines a code of Christian morality with a manual of church life and order, while the Epistle of Barnabas is a path God wills Christians to take inline and thought.
Both of these contain a section based on a Jewish oral and written tradition known as the “Two Ways”. This tradition contrasts the two ways of Life (Light) and Death (Darkness).
The Didache argues that there are great differences between these two ways. It declares: “Thou shalt not murder” a child by abortion. Similarly, the Epistle of Barnabas, the section on the Way of Light, repeats the same words in a list of “thou shalt (not)” statements including, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor more than thy own life.” The foetus is seen, not as a part of the mother, but as a neighbor. Abortion would then be seen as wrong because the termination of a pregnancy would not been seen as “loving thy neighbor”.
Both texts regard abortion as murder and provide an ethical context within which abortion should be viewed. “Thou shalt not abort” becomes a sub-commandment of the commandment not to murder. Abortion is presented also as an offense against humanity, a disrespect of the second great commandment, “To love thy neighbor”, which the Epistle of Barnabas has expanded to say “more than thyself”. Furthermore, abortion is shown not only as a sin, but as an evil no better and social in comparison to the cruelty of the poor and needy and no less shameful than the use of poisons.
Pg 5
From these passages, Christians can conclude abortion to be wrong. However, teachings on delayed Ensoulment counter this view.
St Augustine’s Delayed Ensoulment theory came about in the 13th century when it was argued that the male foetus becomes a human being at 40 days and a female at 90 days after conception.
This would mean that an abortion would be considered acceptable up to the 90th day after conception as the foetus would not yet have a soul.
Christians are therefore confused about abortion if they base their ideas on the early teachings. They then have to turn to the Christian principles to help them. These are: the sanctity of life and agape.
The sanctity of life:
The word sanctity means purity or holiness. When it is used to describe life it expresses the idea of the most precious thing, meaning life should be valued most highly. In Genesis 1:27, it says that life was created by God, and that all human beings were made in his image. The taking of another person's life is a sin against God.
Christians believe that life is a gift from God. The purpose of life is to serve God and so we must treat all people as equal, as they are all in God’s image. The Christian church teaches that life is a sacred gift from God and so should be cherished and respected, every life is seen as God’s creation, even unborn babies. The bible states:
God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
Genesis 1:26-27
God created both male and female in his own image meaning, in some mysterious way, all people share something of the nature of God. In relation to the topic of abortion, this biblical reference would indicate that abortion is wrong, as it is an act against god. Abortion is not respecting God’s creation.
Pg 6
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.”
Psalm 139:13
In relation to abortion this reference indicates that the foetus is alive from the point of conception and emphasizes that it is another of Gods creations that we should respect. Abortion, in this view, is wrong because we are told to respect and care for God’s creations, not destroy them.
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart.”
Jeremiah 1:5
In relation to abortion this reference indicates that Gods knows the foetus before it has even been conceived. In this case abortion would be considered wrong as God already knows his creation, it is a “live” being, in the sense that God already knows him/her.
Although the bible states that life begins at conception, it is contradicted by various references in the bible such as Ezekiel 37:10, I Kings 17:17-21, and James 2:26.
“…and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.”
Genesis 2:7
As a foetus cannot breathe within its mother’s womb and would therefore mean it has not yet got a soul. The first breath from the baby is at the point of birth and it would be at this point that the baby would be considered a human being. This reference would then support abortion as it occurs before the baby’s first breath.
Agape:
Agape expresses the spiritual love of God for his people. It is an unconditional love and concern for others. Agape is a love that accepts everyone for who they are, a selfless love that doesn’t depend on anything other than the act itself.
“Love thy neighbour more than thyself: Do not to others what thou wouldn't not wish be done to thyself.”
Epistle of Barnabas
Pg 7
Christians may use agape to aid them in making their decision about abortion. The growing foetus may be seen as “thy neighbour” and would then be classed as wrong to take the life of that foetus because it states that you shouldn’t do something to someone that you would have done to yourself.
Although it could also be applied to the mother, she, as “thy neighbour”, has the choice to whether she wants to carry the unborn child or not. It is her body and the final decision lies with her. This reference would therefore justify abortion when the mother has made the decision to have an abortion and has not been forced into it.
“Love thy enemy as you do thyself”
Even if you don’t yet have any feelings about the foetus, or whatever feeling you do have must be put aside and you have to love it. You should love it as you love yourself. If you wouldn’t like anyone else to take your life then you have to take into account that you will be taking the life away from someone else.
“Do to others whatever you would have them do to you.”
The golden commandment is an essential “law” for Christians and breaking it wouldn’t make then a true Christian. In the topic of abortion this is a vital component in making the right decision. You have to take into account the feelings of others. Abortion can be seen as murder/ the taking or another human beings life. If someone else doesn’t have the right to take your life then you surely don’t have the right to take another persons life.
Pg 8
Part B:
How Christians might put their beliefs about
abortion into action!
All Christians see the question of abortion as a moral issue, its either right or wrong, it has become so hard to make a law that everyone will be happy with because of the differences in opinion.
All Christians are guided by a belief in the sanctity of life, it is a sort of guide to how Christians should view life. This means that many will believe having an abortion is wrong because life is seen as sacred. The only problem with the sanctity of life is that is does not specify when a life starts, at the point of conception, when the heart starts to beat, or maybe at birth.
Agape also influences Christians’ opinions about abortion, they have unconditional love and concern for others, which means that they would think that abortion is wrong because the growing baby is also a living being and should be treated as one. Once again this concept relies on when you believe a life begins; for example if you believe that life starts at birth abortions wouldn’t technically be wrong because the foetus’ life has not yet started. However, agape can also be shown to the woman and therefore justify abortion.
The Roman Catholic view:
The Roman Catholic Church says that deliberately causing an abortion is a grave moral wrong. The Church says that the human life begins when the woman's egg is fertilised by a male sperm, at conception. They believe this because all the things that make us who we are, are laid down in the genetic code that comes into existence at the point of conception - the features that distinguish us, the colour of our eyes, the shape of our face, and many other important factors. They believe each new life that begins at this point is not a potential human being but a human being with potential and that its rights to life are as equal to that of the mother's and any other human being.
None of the Christian Churches believe that abortion should be encouraged and most agree that it should only be used in the most serious of circumstances. The Roman Catholic Church believes it is nearly always unjustifiable.
They strongly disagree with abortion in every instance, although it accepts that a pregnancy may end as the result of necessary medical treatment given to a woman, so it’s called the double effect. This is that an abortion may be carried out if the intension is to save the life of the woman.
The Church condemned abortion as early as the 2nd century: a document called the Didache, written in the 2nd century, states: "You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish".
Pg 9
The Pope declared that Catholics shouldn’t have abortions. He believes life begins at the point of conception. Other Churches such as the Anglican Church and The Church of England believe abortions should be discouraged, but feel under some circumstances it can be justified, for instance:
If the heath of the mother or existing family members will be affected.
If the woman’s life is at risk, during pregnancy or child birth.
The Church of England view:
The Church of England encourages people to think through the issue of abortion very carefully and recognises that each individual will have different views on the subject. The Church of England shares the Roman Catholic view that abortion is 'gravely contrary to the moral law'. As this statement puts it:
In the light of our conviction that the foetus has the right to live and develop as a member of the human family, we see abortion, the termination of that life by the act of man, as a great moral evil. We do not believe that the right to life, as a right pertaining to persons, admits of no exceptions whatever; but the right of the innocent to life admits surely of few exceptions indeed.
Church of England Board of Social Responsibility, 1980
However this statement does accept that under some circumstances abortions are allowed. After concerns about the number of abortions in recent years, they went on to recognise:
Those in situations where the continuance of a pregnancy threatens the life of the mother, a termination of pregnancy may be justified and there must be adequate and safe provision in our society for such situations.
General Synod, 1983
The Church of England is concerned about the number of abortions carried out each year in this country. They have consistently tried to narrow the grounds on which an abortion allowed to be carried out and have argued that the law has been taken too tolerantly ending in an unnecessary number of abortions.
E.g. the number of abortions carried out since the passage of the Abortion Act
1967 is unacceptably high.
Church of England General Synod, 1993
Pg 10
The Church of England is keen to make sure that as many abortions as possible are carried out as early as possible. However, in the exceptions of termination that has to be carried out after 24 weeks, it should only take place where there is a serious foetal disability and/or survival of the mother or foetus will be for a very short period of time.
Pro-life or Pro-choice?
There are now two sides to the argument, pro-life and pro-choice. They both promote their ideas through demonstrations and protests.
-
Pro-life - the political and ethical view which argues that and are human beings, and therefore have a . This means the mother does not have to the right to prematurely abort the growing foetus. One example is Society for the Protection of Unborn Children.
-
Pro-choice - the and view that argues that a woman should have complete control over her fertility and pregnancy, even if it means she wants to terminate the embryo or foetus. For example Abortion Law Reform Association. As only women can get pregnant, and therefore only women have abortions, a male legislator has no right to vote on an abortion-related law.
Pg 11
Part C:
“Abortion is never justified!”
Some people are against abortion, and many of them are active in trying to promote practical solutions to the causes that drive women to abortion, some join pro-life campaigns and say “the right to life should always outweigh the right of an individual to equality or to control their own body“. Abortion is seen a way of side-stepping other real issues that should be addressed. Abortion can damage the long-term physical, emotional and/or mental health of women who have had an abortion.
They argue that abortion is morally wrong because they consider it as the murder of an unborn child, another human being with equal rights. Killing an innocent human being is wrong, they believe that the human life begins at conception therefore the foetus is an innocent human being and killing it is wrong so abortion is always wrong.
They consider the foetus as another person; it has a unique genetic code made at the point of conception so is a unique individual life from that point onwards. This life should be respected.
Killing beings with 'a future like ours' is wrong. It is wrong to kill beings that would have a future if they lived. In most cases the foetus (if not aborted) would have had a future like ours, so it is wrong to kill a foetus and abortion is wrong (in some cases). To kill a ‘potential’ life is immoral.
Causing pain is wrong. It is wrong to cause pain and suffering, even to a foetus. They are sufficiently developed to feel pain by 18 weeks therefore it is wrong to carry out an abortion after 18 weeks of pregnancy because the foetus will feel pain.
Increasing tolerance of killing is wrong, allowing abortion is legalising killing. Legalising killing reduces everyone's respect for life. In extreme cases it may even lead to euthanasia, genocide and increased murder rates meaning abortion is wrong.
What women need is not free access to abortion but to be given what they need to financially and socially survive as mothers. Inexpensive, readily available childcare, a workplace/school that recognizes needs of mothers like flexible scheduling and maternity leave, support that helps add a woman into the workforce etc.
“There are women who are raped and become pregnant; the problem is that they were raped, not that they are pregnant.
There are women who are starving who become pregnant; the problem is that they are starving, not that they are pregnant.
There are women in abusive relationships that become pregnant; the problem is that they are in abusive relationships, not that they are pregnant.”
Megan Clancy
Pg 12
Abortion is not always considered wrong, they argue that abortion is not always morally wrong because the foetus is not necessarily a 'person' with the right to live. A collection of human cells does not have the right to live just because it is of the human species, otherwise amputating a limb would be murder. A collection of human cells only has the right to live by certain facts like if it has reached a particular stage of development that makes it a moral 'person' or certain things that make it a moral 'person'.
It is not always wrong to end the life of an innocent person, there are many cases where we have to choose which of two innocent people will live and which will die like in conjoined twins, where the operation to separate them may cause one to die or a woman who has to abandon one of her children to save the other.
'Potential human beings' don't have rights, only 'actual' human beings have rights. The pregnant woman has moral rights, under some circumstances these may overrule the foetus's right to live. These rights include:
- the right to ownership of her own body
- the right to decide her own future
- the right to take decisions without moral or legal interference from others
- the right to life - not aborting the foetus may put the mother's life or health in danger, she has the moral right to abort the foetus if the pregnancy puts any sort of risk on her own life
The 'women's rights' arguments for abortion, it almost places a value on the lives and freedom of women but also accepting that it sometimes may be allowed to sacrifice the life of a foetus. This argument reminds us that even in the abortion debate we should see the woman as a person and not just as a carrier of a/the foetus. We should therefore give great consideration to her rights and needs as well as those of the unborn child. Pro-choice women's rights activists acknowledge that choosing an abortion is usually a case of choosing the least bad of several bad courses of action.
“All of women's aspirations--whether for education, work, or any form of self-determination--ultimately rest on their ability to decide whether and when to bear children.”
Susan Faludi
All women have a moral right to decide what to do with their bodies, including whether they wish to carry a baby or abort it. The right to abortion is vital for gender equality, some men think that they are superior to women and believe that there decisions over rule those of the women carry the baby so they should have the final say.
Pg 13
It is important for individual women to achieve their full potential of their life, if they are forced to have the child and the mother is suffering because it was illegal to have an abortion they will regret having the child and might not love the child as much as they would in different circumstances. Banning abortion puts women at risk by forcing them to use illegal abortionists and could cause serious risk to the mothers’ life, if not resulting in death. It should also be part of pregnancy rights that allows women to make a free choice whether to end a pregnancy or not.
I back the pro-choice argument because I believe that the final decision should be that of the mothers. It is their body and they should have the last say on what would be they best for them. Each case is different and we should take into account people’s circumstances. For example a woman wanting an abortion because she accidentally fell pregnant, is much different to a woman who wants an abortion because the child she is carrying was conceived as a result of rape or will be born severely disabled.
I believe that the mothers say should be the last say. The foetus may be considered a human being or a “potential human being” (which ever you believe) but it still can’t talk for its self. Parents all over the world make decisions for their babies and even if it turns out not to be the best decision, they still made it with their best intentions at heart. If no-one trusts the mothers decision to have an abortion as the best decision for them, why trust then t have a child at all, this would result in a very low birth rate!
I think that people should do all they can to lower the abortion rate but still listen to the mothers decisions. At the moment many mothers-to-be are aborting their pregnancies due a lack of support. If we had more services that specially targeted women who need social and/or financial support to be a mum, the number of abortions may go down meaning the government doesn’t need to spend as much money on free abortions but could spend it on ways to get the abortion rate down.
Although I agree with the pro-choice argument, I think the time limit should be lowered to 18 weeks. A pregnancy study shows that foetus’ may be able to feel pain at the 18 week stage. If an abortion is carried out beyond this point the foetus may be able to feel pain, this would mean we are harming the foetus. It has not yet been fully proved; studies are still being carried out.
I also think that the time limit should be lowered because at 24 weeks the foetus is viable, meaning if it were born it has a chance of surviving. The most premature child to survive is 23 weeks, so if someone were to have an abortion at that stage in their pregnancy, the unborn child may have been viable to live!