The Roman Catholics believe that the human embryo must be treated as a human person from the moment of conception. The Roman Catholic also believes the abortion is murder. They say this because, they believe that the foetus has the some rights, and some value as a child who has already been born. Even if the pregnancy were the result of rape, the Roman Catholic Church would not support abortion. This is because they believe that the foetus should not have to pray he price for someone else’s crime. The Roman Catholics try to encourage the woman not to have abortion, but to have the baby adopted if they cannot cope with bringing it up.
The Roman Catholics church has made several statements to support their view on abortion. The humane vitae in 1968 started that ‘human life is sacred’. Also the declaration on procured abortion in1974 said the ‘abortion is a serious sin and that everyone whether Catholic or not should have proper respect for human life’.
The Church of England is against abortion in principle, but accepts that each ease should be treated differently. These Christians do not reject the sanctity of life. They believe that abortion my be acceptable in some circumstances, they believe that the woman has the right to choose. This means that it should be left to the individuals to decide whether abortion is right or wrong for them. The Church of England argue abortion can be allowed in cases where the women’s life is at risk, or if the baby would be born with a series disability.
The Church of England believes that God creates life, and that it should be nurtured and protected. But they say that this applies to bath the mother and foetus. The Church of England recognises that there needs to be a balance between compassion for the mother and responsibility for the foetus. In 1953 the general synod passed a resdution that in situations where the continuance of pregnancy poser a risk of harm to the mother, a termination of pregnancy may be justified and that provision in our society for such situation should be made.
The Church of England board for social responsibility stated in 1990 that ‘Every human life created is unique, we therefore believe abortion is evil and that abortion on demand would be a very great evil, but to with hold compassion in extreme distress or need is also evil. When linked to abortion this means that they believe abortion is wrong, but it is also wrong to not have compassion or help a woman with the decision of having an abortion.
