The Catholic Church teaches that life begins at the moment of conception; the child is a gift from God and must be respected as a person from the moment of conception. The official Canon Law automatically excommunicates anyone from the church who has had an abortion for whatever reason. “The merciless slaughter of unborn babies is never justified” (Catechism of the Catholic Church). However it does preach an attitude of love and support. An example is Cardinal Winning of Glasgow, who promised to find the money to support any woman who wanted an abortion because she could not afford to have the child and in two years over 50 women came to ask for help. The only time abortion can be allowed as such is through the doctrine of double effect in which knowing taking action, say to save the mothers life will produce an unintended consequence like the death of the foetus which cannot be avoided. The Catholic Church insists that adoption is the best solution, for unwanted babies, bringing happiness to childless couples.
Other Christian churches like the Methodists, Baptist and the Church of England agree with the catholic teaching in principle however they are prepared to allow it in some circumstances. The Church of England believe that abortion on demand would be wrong however they allow abortion if the mother life is in danger. They believe that in an imperfect world abortion is the lesser of the two evils, “the life of the foetus is not paramount” (Church of England report). The Methodist church believes it is permissible to have an abortion if, the mother’s life is in danger, the child is born with a severe handicap or if the mother’s upbringing of other children suffers. The declaration of the United Methodist Church states, “This child is part of God’s world. So the life of this child is not ours to take”, The Baptist church is divided, they to believe like the other churches that life should not be destroyed however, they believe that if the birth of the child will affect other relationships her death or suffering would disturb the abortion is justified and other considerations similar to the Methodist church.
The 1967 law in England and Wales states that abortion can be performed up the 24th week of pregnancy (amended by the 1990 Act to before the 24th week) if the pregnancy would have mental or physical effects to the mother or existing children. It allows abortion to happen at any stage if the child were to be born handicapped or to prevent injury or risking the life of the pregnant woman.
There are many groups who campaign for and against abortion including the National Abortion Campaign, who want the law changed to allow woman to have their right to choose an abortion on demand. SPUC and LIFE are Christian movements, which are against abortion; LIFE concentrates on counselling women and supporting them while SPUC campaigns heavily for a change in the law. Both these organisations believe that life begins at conception. They like many Christians believe that adoption, rather then abortion is a better solution.
The second issue I will discuss is the one concerning euthanasia. Euthanasia means “gentle and easy death” and is the bringing about of this in cases where the person has an incurable and painful disease. The different types of euthanasia include voluntary euthanasia; where the person has asked for it, involuntary; it is performed without the patient knowing, compulsory euthanasia; the patient has reached a certain age or has a certain illness, passive euthanasia, treatment is given to stop the pain but no to cure them and active euthanasia where the patient is given treatment to stop the pain but it will also kill them. The most controversial form of euthanasia is voluntary euthanasia where the patient asks to be “put to rest”.
Again the bile has no direct references to euthanasia, but Christians refer to certain scripture which points to the sanctity of life, for instance the commandment “Thou shall not kill”, and when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, and knew he would be crucified, he prayed to God to help him, but finally acknowledging his task and to do what God wanted rather then to do what he wanted.
Some people believe Euthanasia should be allowed for a number of reasons. They believe everyone deserves the right to live as well as the right to choose how we die, and it helps to take the fear and anxiety out of a painful death by making gentle, peaceful and easy. It is doing the wishes of a person in need. The Voluntary Euthanasia Society and EXIT are organisations that support voluntary euthanasia and campaign for people, and help people in court cases etc who want medical help to die. However others see Euthanasia as murder, as I said before in the bible it states that to take life away is murder and destroying God’s personal creation. They believe it is not fair for doctors and nurses to give the drugs that will kill a patient, which they looked after. Places have been set up for instance by Sheila Cassidy and Cecily Saunders called Hospices. Hospices are dedicated places, which look after dying patients will terminal diseases, controlling pain through medication, care and attention.
There are different attitudes between the Christian Churches. The Catholic Church believes it is wrong to overdose if requested or to omit treatment. However it acceptable to stop life support machines or stop any experimental/extraordinary treatment. In all they believe human life should not be attacked directly but life should not be kept alive at all costs. The Methodist Church believes life is sacred to
but treatment can be stopped as long as there is no apparent hope of recovery. The Quakers/Society of Friends are not untied on the matter, some support voluntary euthanasia while others believe that it would not be needed if there were more hospices where quality of life is maintained till death.
Overall Christians’ views are very contrasting. Some Christians believe that life should be respected and protected especially in the case of abortion as the child is helpless and innocent. While others believe that it is the mother’s choice and sometimes it is the lesser of two evils. Some Christians believe euthanasia is acceptable as it is the person’s own choice, while other believe that there is no need of it in society now with advanced painkillers and hospices for terminally ill people.
