R.E coursework Abortion by Antonio Panzera

Antonio Panzera 11DW – centre number 23234 – candidate number 7079

A) What is meant by the word abortion?

The Collins dictionary defines abortion as “the termination of a pregnancy by the removal or expulsion of an embryo or foetus from the uterus, resulting in or caused by its death.” This in itself is a gruesome summary of the term but we all know there is more to this than a physical meaning. This conclusion of the word comes from a medical point of view but emotionally and religiously, the meaning changes drastically.

There are several types of abortion. Doctors might refer to miscarriages or still births as spontaneous abortions. Spontaneous abortions normally come as a result of natural causes, such as illness. But it is much more common for people to have induced abortions. These are a direct result of a medical procedure intended to terminate a pregnancy.

Before 1803 the English law permitted abortion as long as it was carried out before the point where it reached 20-24 weeks. After this point it was believed that the soul entered the body. Anyone who had an abortion after this point was breaking the law although there were no punishments but after 1803, people belived this method was too dangerous and could be abused leading it to be banned.

But in 1967, the abortion act was passed (later ammended in 1990) allowing women over the age of 16 could have an abortion, with consent from two doctors, if the baby was younger than 24 weeks old. Because of this the word abortion changed its persona, outlook and meaning from a backstreet, illeagal method to a law binding safe option for young women who are pregnant.

As I stated earlier, Abortion, medically, is split into two categories, which I will now explain. There is Natural abortion and procured abortion. Natural abortion is most commonly known as a miscarrige meaning the baby dies before birth in the womb but medicaly it is known as abortion without any assistance. Emotionally this can have life changing effects on the women leading them to have procured abortions later on in life saying they could not cope with the trauma if happened again. You can, on the other hand, have a natural aboriton with the use of herbs. The goal of these methods is to stimulate a natural miscarriage. They have been used for centuries to terminate unwanted pregnancy.

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Procured abortions are the complete opposite. These methods require assistance by trained doctors or specialists. Then medical phrasing of this is “When the growing baby is deliberately killed and removed from the womb.” There are two methods of procured abortion out of the five possible, which are most common.

Firstly there is suction. Suction (dilation and curettage) abortions are often done in the first trimester. The mother's cervix is dilated. Then, a curette (an instrument like a sharpened spoon) is used to scrape the uterus. A suction catheter is inserted to vacuum the parts of the child ...

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