Religious Studies Coursework - Abortion

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Religious Studies

Coursework

Christianity

Melissa Parvis 5W

2006

1.

A. i. What is meant by the word or term “Abortion”?

The dictionary states that abortion is:

“The termination of a pregnancy by artificial or chemical means.”         So this means abortion is the premature artificial termination of a pregnancy that otherwise would continue to a birth of a possible healthy child.

Although sometimes this happens on its own accord, this is called a spontaneous abortion or a miscarriage. Sometimes this can be very upsetting for couples wanting a baby but sometimes this happens so early on in the pregnancy the mother doesn’t even notice. Procured abortion and miscarriage are both very different, abortion is purposeful and miscarriage is natural.

Today there has been a rise in abortions. In 2004, for women

resident in England and Wales the total number of abortions was

185,400, compared with 181,600 in 2003, a rise of 2.1%.Some of the public see abortions as a social dilemma, but others may say that this proves that women today have bigger ambitions and do not want to be weighed down by an unwanted pregnancy. This could hamper their chances of further education, promotion or leaving the mother unable to work full hours.

Some people see abortion as murder. In 1861 abortion became a criminal act under any circumstances and it was punishable by imprisonment. It wasn’t until 1929 that the Infant Life Preservation Act amended the law stating it would no longer be regarded as a felony if abortion was carried out in good faith for preserving the life of the mother. But then “The Abortion Act” was passed in 1967, The law gave the rights and responsibility for decision making to doctors not women. It did not legalise abortion, but allowed for exceptions to the illegality of abortion. Originally the time you could have an abortion was up to 28 weeks. This however was wrong because viability was 25 weeks. This is the time when the unborn baby is able to live outsides the mother’s body.

So in 1990 the 1990 Human Fertilization and Embryology Act was passed. This lowered the time up to which you could have an abortion to 24 weeks. Recently though, due to new technology, viability has been lowered to 22 weeks but the law stays the same.

There are many different opinions on abortion and there are campaign groups too, for instance LIFE the Christian pro-life group (pro-life meaning for the life of a child) therefore against abortion, they believe that an unborn child is life and should be treated the same as any other human and therefore have the same rights. “The National Abortion Campaign” on the other hand is pro-choice group (pro-choice meaning for the choice for the parent whether to have a child). They believe that the unborn child is not life but potential life and abortion is in the best interests of the mother.

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1.

A. ii. What biblical teachings might be used in a discussion about abortion?

For Christians, the Bible is an important text for teaching about their faith.Christians may turn to the Bible if they have a problem, to see what Jesus might do. So if Christians were contemplating having an abortion they would turn to the Bible to see if it was the right ...

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