Different religious and philosophical views on controversial topics.

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Jonathan Lloyd

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The smallest wonder

Amillia, born only 21 weeks and six days after conception, is the most premature baby ever to survive. In England the cut-off point for abortion with no medical reason is 24 weeks, Amillia is destined to grow into a healthy human being, and so does abortion amount to murder?

Buddhist

A Buddhist would say that all life is sacred and should never be taken away, and to have an abortion would amount to murder and as such would place the worst kind of bad karma upon your soul. The first Buddhist precept is do not kill, this is to say that to take the life of any living creature is wrong and because they believe in ensoulment at birth that even a foetus is considered living. However, they would also say that intention is a great factor and as such if you mean well and spare the mother or the child future pain then abortion may not give as much bad karma.

Utilitarian

A utilitarian would say that this proves that the abortion cut-off point is too long because no amount of pain on the parent’s part would ever account for all of the pleasure in the child’s life. However if the child was to be handicapped and would not have the ability to live with an acceptable quality of life then it would cause less pain overall to abort the birth.

Kantian

A Kantian would say that to take a human life under any circumstances is wrong and as such abortion is wrong. They would also say that baby Amillia is further proof of this. The only situation in which abortion would be allowed is if the mother’s life is in danger and because we have a duty to her life we may be able to sacrifice that of the child.

Christian

A Christian would fall upon the commandment “Do not kill” which states that any attempt on human life is murder. Thus anyone who gives permission for or carries out an abortion is in breach of this law and as such will be punished accordingly. The birth of baby Amillia would only further this belief to show that life really does begin long before the legal cut-off point for abortion.

Myself

I believe that a being only becomes human when it is self aware and shows sufficient brain activity to prove this. As for baby Amillia’s birth, I admit that this shows that life can begin from a very early point however there is doubt she will ever lead an entirely normal life (Proven by others, who were born much later than her, dying early and living with brain, lung and liver problems.) However I am not suggesting that children like Amillia should be automatically terminated but she is a very special case and all other births at such an early date have resulted in a still birth. As such if the mother wishes to terminate a pregnancy that early on, then I believe that she and her partner should be given the right to make that choice.

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Buddhist

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