Week 6: Bones begin to form.
Week 9: The baby looks more human and is now called a foetus.
Week 12: All organs of the body are formed.
Week 14:
Week 20: Eyebrows and eyelashes begin to form.
Week 23: Foetus can survive outside mother’s body. (Abortion limit)
Week 49: Baby is ready to be born naturally.
This is the growth of a baby inside its mother’s womb.
The stages of development which can be considered as where life begins are: fertilisation, when heart beats, when brain works, viability and birth.
The actual stage of a foetus’s development which marks where life begins is at fertilisation. The Church says that human life begins when the woman's egg is fertilised by a male sperm.
Abortion is the termination of pregnancy and expulsion or removal of an embryo or foetus from the mother’s womb.
- In 54 countries (61% of the world population) abortions are legal.
- In 97 countries (39% of the world population) abortions are illegal.
- There are approximately 46 million abortions conducted every year, 20 million of them obtained illegally.
- There are approximately 126,000 abortions conducted each day.
In more than half of the countries in the world abortion is legal just under half of the abortions in a year are illegal, this shows that many abortions occur in illegal countries and past the abortion limit of 23 weeks.
- Age - The majority of women getting an abortion are young. 52% are younger than 25 years old and 19% are teenagers. The abortion rate is highest for those women aged 18 to 19 (56 per 1,000 in 1992.)
- Marriage - 51% of women who are unmarried when they become pregnant will receive an abortion. Unmarried women are 6 times more likely than married women to have an abortion. 67% of abortions are from women who have never been married.
- Race - 63% of abortion patients are white, however, black women are more than 3 times as likely to have an abortion, and Hispanic women are 2.5 times as likely.
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Religion - 43% of women getting an abortion claimed they were Protestant, while 27% claimed they were Catholic.
These statistics on abortion show that most of the women who have abortions are under25. The abortion rate is highest for women aged 18-19 as there are 56 per 1000 in 1992 which have grown. This shows that younger women are having unsafe sex. Women who are not married are more likely to get an abortion as they will not have support from a partner. Marriage is also a big part in abortion which s shown by the statistics. Looking in terms of what religions have abortions 43% of women getting abortions are Protestants and 27% getting abortions are Catholic which shows the difference of views on abortion.
There are many reasons for a woman to have or not have an abortion; some being job position, relationship status, and condition of child and religious views. There must always be a valid reason for abortion and an agreement from two doctors.
Religious views
The Roman Catholic Church says that deliberately causing an abortion is a grave moral wrong. The Church of England shares the Roman Catholic view that abortion is 'gravely contrary to the moral law'. As the 1980 statement of the Board of Social Responsibility put it: "In the light of our conviction that the foetus has the right to live and develop as a member of the human family, we see abortion, the termination of that life by the act of man, as a great moral evil.” Religious people often have effects on people’s decisions like abortions; in 1970 Pope Paul VI said “Abortion has been considered to be murder since the first centuries of the church, and nothing permits it to be considered otherwise.” Many Protestants are supporters of the pro-life stance which can mean abortion if the woman involved feels this is right so this shows that Catholics are stricter about abortion than Protestants which is shown in the statistics.
These two pictures are both to do with abortion but can show two different views on it. The first picture shows that abortion is strictly killing an unborn baby. The baby being help in a hand shows the seriousness of abortion and how it affects the unborn baby. The first picture will be a picture which Catholics agree with. The second picture shows the remains of a baby after abortion and the words “choice” shows the protestant view of abortion being a choice to the woman involved.
Fertility treatment is the name given to medical treatments which are tried in order for a people, who are unable to conceive naturally, to have a baby. If you are unable to conceive naturally you are infertile. The main reasons for being infertile are that the man does not produce healthy sperm and that a woman does not ovulate. For a couple who are really trying for a baby being infertile is a serious issue.
Overcoming Infertility
An embryo is a life which is created when fertilised by an egg. Approximately one in ten couples is infertile and embryo technology or fertility treatment can help to overcome this problem. There are several different methods of fertility treatment:
- AIH
- AID
- IVF
- Egg donation
- Embryo donation
- Surrogate motherhood
AIH: Artificial Insemination by the husband.
AID: Artificial Insemination by a donor.
IVF: In Vitro Fertilisation, this takes place outside the womb, using a test tube. Sperm is provided by husband or donor.
Egg donation: Egg is donated by another woman.
Embryo donation: An embryo is donated by another man and woman.
Surrogate motherhood: Pregnancy undertaken by another woman to provide baby.
Legal issues: Infertility is valid reason.
Human embryo should be protected by law.
Limited research is permitted. (Up to 14th day of fertilisation)
Licensing authority must regulate procedures.
Religious views
Most Christian churches say that it is alright to use science to help a childless couple to conceive as long as a donor is not involved. In Christianity it is believed a child is a gift from God. The preferred method of fertility is; AIH. AID is not favourable as it is not sperm from the husband. The most common method of fertility is IVF but the Roman Catholic Church is very opposed to this method. The method of IVF is said to lead to the creation of spare embryos and these embryos maybe used for experimentation or simply disposed of. Many Catholics argue that life begins at fertilisation and that embryos have rights.
This is a picture of a human embryo.
When using a donor sperm of egg it is not preferred in Christianity as it leads to problems of identity of the child and who the biological parent is. Christianity is not in favour of AID but say that using AIH which is sperm from the husband is alright as there is no third party involved.
Catholics also have concerns about IVF as it is a very common method and can lead to creating spare embryos which are sometimes frozen and destroyed and sometimes even used for experimentation. In 1996 there was an article about frozen embryos which said that 3000 frozen embryos were to be destroyed.
This is a picture of the process; IVF.
Euthanasia comes from two Greek words which mean literally “good death.” Euthanasia is when a person, sometimes a doctor, helps someone with an illness to die quicker than they might have naturally. It is not suicide as it is for people who are unable to take their own lives so they sometimes ask someone else to help them die. Sometimes people think that euthanasia is the right choice as they are suffering and would like to die with dignity not because of terminal illness. If someone asks for euthanasia it is called voluntary euthanasia, but if a person has not asked it is called involuntary euthanasia. When a person is helped to die by being given drugs or an injection it is called active euthanasia, and this is against the law.
There is a form of euthanasia which is not against the law which is called passive euthanasia. Passive euthanasia is where you do not give someone treatment to prolong their life. Some people decide this is better than doctors prolonging someone’s life. Passive euthanasia is where someone dies as hey have not had treatment to prolong their life. Some people think that euthanasia should be an option for those who want it.
Euthanasia is illegal in Britain but there have been many attempts to legalise it but all failed. If one of the attempts had succeeded then euthanasia would be available to those over 18 and would have to have an agreement by two doctors. In Netherlands euthanasia is legal but there are some conditions.
Religious views
The bible does not say anything firm about euthanasia although there are biblical arguments on the subject both for and against.
For
- People have been given dominion by other living things by God.
- God wants people to have quality of life; for someone with no quality of life Euthanasia maybe acceptable.
- God is love. Stopping suffering is a loving thing to do.
- People have been given free will by God.
Against
- There maybe a purpose to suffering.
- Life is sacred and euthanasia destroys it.
- The Holy Spirit lives in Christians. Euthanasia destroys God’s temple.
- It is more compassionate to care for the sick than to speed up death.
These are very good reasons for and against euthanasia. As the bible does not say anything firm Christians do not have a firm belief about euthanasia but their own opinion.
You could argue whether it is right to kill someone as they are ill but we do not have the right to take lives. You could argue that euthanasia is about mercy and that we should be merciful to the dying and help them.
Although the bible does not say anything on euthanasia, there are teachings on the subject. Here is the Catholic teaching; the Catholic Church believes that euthanasia is wrong. Life is sacred and only God should be allowed to make decisions over death. Catholics realise that decisions on euthanasia are not straightforward. Catholics accept that it is right to ease the suffering of the terminally ill even when the effect of using pain relieving drugs may be to end the patients life sooner than if they were to die naturally. They do not see this as euthanasia as no one is changing what would naturally happen.
Suicide is the act in which a person takes to kill him/herself. It is when someone deliberately ends his/her life. It is sometimes called ‘self-murder.’ In the past many countries saw suicide as a crime and any that tried but failed would be severely punished. Today people realise that if a person wants to commit suicide this is because of depression, suffering or other mental illnesses. In a way it is similar to euthanasia but you commit suicide without anyone else’s help. Religious teachings on suicide date back to when people understood little about the subject.
Reasons for suicide
Religious views
In some cultures people believed it was honourable to takes one’s own life although Christians do believe that life is sacred and that it belongs to god which relates to the matter whether we have the right to take life; even our own. Christians believe that we have no right to take the life of ourselves or others. In the past the church insisted that if you committed suicide then you would not have eternal life but now the church has a different attitude towards the subject of suicide. The church accepts that people are often under immense pressure and sometimes are not mentally stable. Christians try to enjoy life to the fullest and are not completely against suicide even though it is taking life.
Animals are used in experiments everyday for various uses; for cosmetics, for cleaning products, for food additives, and many more. Animal testing or vivisection is very cruel and so many die in a year. It was recorded that 2,655,876 tests occurred in 2001 and many of these died or were injured severely. Nowadays people are more aware because of the number of the animal rights protests. There are strict guidelines about how animals should be treated and how different companies should share results so animal testing can be reduced. Many people who feel strongly about this issue decide to buy products which indicate they have not been tested by animals.
Testing on animals is an important part of medical research but many people fell strongly about the issue. An example of extremists is here some protesters stole the bones of a farmer’s mother in order to stop the farmer from breeding guinea pigs and sold off for experimentation. Many of the drugs people use today are tested on animals and many of the medical and surgical procedures. For these tests animals are essential; but should animals be tested on? A lot of the medical scientists argue that if we did not test on animals we would not have the safe medical products we need. Should animal rights be the same as human rights?
Animals suffer because of us!!
Religious views
The bible shows that animals have more value than items but less than humans. In history animal testing was not considered a major problem. In the bible there are many stories which show that people should be kind and care for animals and others show that they are inferior to us. All in all Christians can have their own views on animal testing whether they use the benefits of animal testing or protest against it. The bible does not state anything on vivisection so Christians can have different views.
Images- Google images
Information- Biblical quotes
Library information
Religion and medical ethics book
womensissues.about.com/cs/ abortionstats/a/aaabortionstats.htm
www.lifeuk.org/
Case studies (Exercise book and text book)
