Section 2) Explain the way Christians respond to contraception and abortion
Contraception
For many years in Church, the main reason for sex was for pro-creation: So God created human beings and said have many children. Genesis 1:26 – 27 says – “And God said, let us make man in our image and after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over everything that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them”. Genesis 38:9 – 10 says that during intercourse ‘Onan spilled his seed on the ground’. This was seen as evil in the sight of the Lord because it contradicts what God said about having many children and being fruitful. Onan was punished through death. There is a high chance of a female getting pregnant if she and her partner have routine sex. To lessen the chance of a female getting pregnant a method called ‘contraception’ is utilised. Sexual intercourse is not seen as a sin in Christianity, but Christians believe that Sex should be practised within a loving relationship of marriage. Before the 1930’s, all Christian dominations were united in their immovable rejection of contraceptives. The Church of England advocated the use of artificial contraception when abstinence was deemed impracticable (Lambeth conference 1930). The same regulation was made by the Federal churches in 1931. The majority of Protestant traditions followed. The national council of churches, in 1961, declared a liberal policy on the use of contraceptives, subordinate to the mutual consent between both partners. There are many documents that state that the Roman Catholic preaching on contraception. The most vital ones are:
- The church in the modern world
- Letter on the regulation of birth
- The Christian family in the modern world
- Respect for human life in its origin & dignity of pro- creation
- The gospel of life
Pope Paul VI, in 1968, issued a letter titled ‘On human life’ (Human Vitae). Pope Paul believed that the letter was compulsory considering the fact the range of contraceptives was increasing, Pope John Paul II has stressed the preaching of the church. The Catholic Church’s position on contraception is:
Sex has two functions:
- To express the love between husband and wife
- To give Life to children
The loved shared between spouses becomes beautiful during sexual intercourse, this is similar to the love of God. Making love (spouses), is a indication of the Sacrament of marriage and contraceptives such as the pill, sterilisation and vasectomy stop sexual intercourse from being a beautiful and creative thing which assist husband and wife to show their love for eachother. Contraceptives are unfavourable to the natural law and are therefore unjust. St. Augustine established that contraceptives admitted vice into marriage! It is said by the churches that married couples are allowed to keep a tight rein on the size of their families when it is compulsory. This is supposed to be done by using natural methods such as birth control, meaning the wife can only get pregnant during a couple of days in a month. For acceptable reasons, married couples may decide that they want to space out the births of their children. They must make sure that their wish to space out the births of their children is not encouraged by egotism but it has to be in agreement with the generosity suitable to responsible to fatherliness and motherliness… The logic of birth regulation based on self- observation and the use of infertile periods, is in conformity with the objective criteria of mortality…Every action…purposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render pro-creation impossible is intrinsically evil…’ (Catechism of the Catholic Church 2368, 2370). Some males and females under-go operation, which allow them to not reproduce. At times doctors may prescribe pills usually used for contraception. The Catholic Church believes this is ok because there is no deliberate intention to obstruct conception. Not surprisingly, all other moral laws apply:
Not being able to have children because of an operation is no excuse to commit adultery!
In 1968, Pope Paul VI stated that care and love should be directed at the issue of contraception. Surveys say that around 80% of Roman Catholics do not support the teachings of the Catholic Church (This is in Great Britain and the USA). In the USA, the majority of Catholics refer to a letter published by the bishops of the United States ‘Human Life in our day’ in order to defend the use of contraceptives. In this letter, the bishops recognised ‘the pressures and circumstances which might reduce the moral guilt of those use of contraception’.
Anglicans, Evangelicals and Christian fundamentalists believe in the teaching of total prohibition of artificial birth control by the Roman Catholic Church. ‘Consider together the responsibilities of parenthood…’ A statement about contraceptives and family planning has not yet been issued by the Quakers Church. The majority of Quaker couples use contraception as they prefer to manage the size of their families. When it comes to the Quaker couple decisions, it is more of a matter of personal choice and conscience. The Eastern Orthodox Church has said that quite a few Church Fathers, along with Pauline texts in the New Testament, do not exactly state that sexual intercourse is for reproduction only. Because of these facts the Orthodox Church has not made any statements about the use of contraceptives. As a matter fact, the Orthodox Church allows married couples to decide for themselves what they would like to do regarding the use of contraceptives. Christians do not believe in choosing life in a broader sense also. Some Christians regard ‘certain’ forms of contraception to be more viable than others: the IUD and the drug RU468 (the morning after pill) may not be considered ‘Christian’ options, since they act after the event rather than before. The ‘morning-after pill’ is the subject of a document issued by the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child in January 2002, which lies out medical and ethical reasons why this form of ‘emergency contraception’ is both dangerous and unethical.
Abortion
All Churches agree with the Ten Commandments. One of the commandments states ‘Thou shalt not kill’. The simple basis of this is that nobody should ever take the life of another. Yet there are special cases. Take for example in the case of war or another strange situation. Isaiah 49:15- 16 says: “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
Your walls are ever before me”.
The Church of England & Methodist church
These groups of people have the belief that aborting an unborn child is a complete act of evil. They also think that one is always faced between the choice of two evils, and then the diminutive one out of the two evil actions must be chosen. Meaning the lesser of the two evils may be abortion. If the pregnancy were formed out of a rape, if the woman could prove that the embryo was handicapped or if the mother’s life was in danger, then the church would allow the abortion. An abortion would also be considered if intense social conditions like poverty. Resolving something like this, in all cases must be built upon one or more of the Christian teachings:
- A central concept in Christianity is love, and abortion might be the most loving course of action
- Christians have to accept that new technology and advances in medicine have made it possible to detect certain handicaps in foetus. Such tests would help to prevent such problems in the future
- Christianity is also concerned with justice and it would be unfair to ban abortions if that would adversely affect the poor
- The sanctity of life can be broken in times of war when people are killed- so why not for abortions
- Life does not begin at conception
The Church of England
This church said in a report in 1984 “The foetus is to be specially respected and protected”. Yet it still went on to say “Nonetheless the life of the foetus is not absolutely sacrosanct if it endangers the life of the mother”. 1998 was the year in which The Church of England announced that they wanted the decrease the number of abortions taking place. They also said that if abortion was going to take place, that it should be done a quickly as possible.
The Church of Scotland
Their board of social responsibility in 1987 came to the decision that ‘abortion has no moral justification and represents the unwarranted destruction of human life that is made in the image of God’. The Church of Scotland was very cautious in stating that this is only in ‘the majority of cases’.
The Quaker Church
They have not yet made an official comment on abortion. Yet there are some Quakers that are obviously against abortion, but others still believe that it is significant for women to play a full role in society. They believe that personal conscience is the greatest issue.
The Roman Catholic Church
Many people from this Church if not most stand by the fact that all types of abortion are incredibly wrong. Their beliefs are taken from Christian teachings:
- The sanctity of life- life is holy and belongs to God- only God has the right to end it
- The belief that life begins from the moment of conception
- The belief that the unborn child is created in the image of God, and is a human being for whom Christ died
- The belief that every human being has the right to life
The teaching of the Catholic Church is expressed in the Declaration on Procured abortion (1974). The document informs us that we must be aware of human rights: “From the time that the ovum is fertilised, a life is begun which is neither that of the father or the mother. It is rather the life of a new human being with its own growth. It would never be made human if it were never human already” (Paragraph 12). “Death should not be sought” (Evangelium Viate, 65). “A person who procures a complete abortion incurs excommunication” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2272). The doctrine of the double effect is often used when Roman Catholics are discussing abortion. This refers to ectopic pregnancies or if the mothers develop cancer. This is the idea of if I take an action to in-order to achieve one thing, knowing that it will produce another, I cannot be held responsible. Take for example- if I were to get rid of a cancerous tumour from the mother knowing that it will kill the foetus. Yet this is not an abortion, because all I was trying to do is get rid of the cancer. Mother Theresa spoke about the way the West accepts abortion so easily. She spoke about it with great condemnation and said that abortion was a murder of children. The Catholic Church advise women who do become pregnant and feel that they cannot keep the child, that they should give he/she up for adoption rather than abortion. Groups that campaign against abortion have named themselves ‘pro-life’. The society for the Protection of the Unborn Child (SPUC) and the LIFE movement support the Catholic Church’s teaching on abortion. LIFE and SPUC have the same beliefs, yet they do different things. LIFE focuses more on helping women who are pregnant or those who think they may be pregnant. Whilst on the other hand SPUC concentrate more on campaigning heavily by lobbying politicians, raising petitions and activity in political parties and trade unions. Groups that campaign for abortion call themselves ‘pro-choice’. There are two well-known organisations in Britain. One is called The National Abortion Campaign and The Abortion Rights Action League. They help to educate women about available options they have, which the law has given them. Just like the ‘pro-life’ groups they also lobby politicians, raise petitions and activity in political parties and trade unions.
Section3) “What Christians believe about life is up to them. They should not try to make others accept their position”
Some people believe that what Christians believe about life is up to them and that their opinion should not be slighted, but should be respected by other Christians, because every human being is entitled to their own opinion, and it is important for them to be able to express what they believe in without their opinion being looked down upon and corrected by others. They should not be persuaded or forced in to any situations by anyone in whom they are not content in doing so. They might say that a person has a right to make their own decisions in life and should not have to consult to Religion constantly and should follow their own reasoning because choices in life should be left up to nobody but themselves. They themselves have the right to believe what they want. They might argue that a woman has a right to choose what she does with her own body and that there is no person better to decide than the woman herself. They may also say that a suffering person has the right to end their own lives and that there should definitely not be a ban against Euthanasia.
Other people may disagree with this viewpoint and say that what a person decides and chooses to believe affects others, such as family, friends, child in womb or an ill person. Also, what a person decides affects everyone around them and beliefs should not be decided under selfish means. They might believe that no person has a right to end their own life and God should be the only person to decide when life should end because God is the creator and giver of life and life is a gift from him that we should be grateful for. They might argue that there should be laws to prevent abortion because the unborn baby is a separate human being and life and vulnerable lives should be protected within society. Also, the sick, weak, young and old should be protected by society. They may think that Christians should all hold one belief and that any one separate person should not decide it. They may expect a proper Christian not to make their own beliefs about life, but to only follow the commandments and teachings of the Christian society.
In conclusion I believe that what Christians believe about life should be left up unto them because every single person has the right to believe and express their own opinions. I would argue that people’s views should be respected and accepted by everybody.