What is meant by the word abortion?

nature. As such every human being is holy and must be treated with the greatest respect. It lies behind the idea that in God’s eyes every human being has unique value and that no one should be despised or denied the chance to live. Christians believe that life is sacred, life is holy and that it belongs to God, therefore it is not ours to abort. Some Christians believe that the commandment in Exodus twenty, thou shall not commit murder, applies to the unborn child. This raises the crucial question, when does life begin? It is very difficult to argue with Psalm one hundred and thirty nine, which states, “thou didst knit me together in my mother’s womb”. This seems to suggest that life begins within the womb and not when the baby is born. This is also implied in Isaiah forty-nine, verse five, which states, “…the lord who formed me in the womb to be his servant…”.  Most Christians believe that we have no right to abort a foetus, one Corinthians three verse sixteen–seventeen supports this, “Surely you know that you are God’s temple, where the spirit of God dwells. Any one who destroys God’s temple will himself be destroyed by God, because the temple of God is holy and that temple you are.”. Christians are generally against abortion although some take a harder line than others. Christians share with Jews the belief that human life is sacred. The General Synod of the Church of England in nineteen eighty-three stated that all human life, including that developing in the womb should be ‘nurtured, supported and protected’. Jesus said nothing about abortion but he had a special concern for children. He also taught much about the need to care for the weak in society, so many Christian’s feel that he would favour a law protecting the unborn child. Christian’s belief in the sanctity of life is central to a Christian understanding of the issue of abortion. If life is sacred, a gift from God then it cannot be acceptable to take life. If life begins after birth, then to abort would not go against teachings about the sanctity of life. If, however, life begins at conception, it would. The Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches forbid abortion in all cases. In nineteen seventy four a declaration on procured abortion was drawn up by the Roman Catholic Church stating, ‘From the time the ovum is fertilised, a new life is begun which is neither that of the farther nor the mother. It is the life of a new human being with it’s own growth. It would never become a human if it were not human already.’ Methodists are against abortion in principle but realise that banning abortion would cause a great deal of suffering. They believe that Christians should try to alleviate suffering and therefore accept the U.K Abortion Laws. There are four main responses to this question of when life begins: 1) Life begins at conception. 2) Life begins at birth. 3) Life begins at some time between conception and birth. 4) It is impossible for us to say when life begins. If Christians accept the first then they cannot accept abortion. If they accept the second, abortion will be acceptable. Most Christians, however, do not accept this response as there is little Biblical support for it.. If Christians accept the third response, then they may accept abortion up until a given stage in the pregnancy. The problem here is on deciding when exactly during pregnancy life begins. If they accept the fourth, then surely abortion cannot be permitted, as Christians will not know whether or not they are going against the principle of the sanctity of life. Most biblical support can be found for the first and fourth responses. Both these responses would lead to an opposition to abortion. Christian tradition has been anti-abortion from the earliest days of the Church. So it is very difficult to agree with abortion if you follow Christian teachings. Section A                Page