The Roman Catholic church teaches that human life is sacred. Explain how this teaching influences its attitude to abortion and euthanasia, showing that you understand other points of view.

or a child with a terminal disease that would make there life worse

than death. Although some of the 97% could be due to the mothers

health for instance if she had cancer of the womb and needed the baby

to be removed or she would die as this would be considered to be part

of a double effect, where the main priority is the health of the

mother. Euthanasia the greek word for easy death is the taking of life

to relieve extreme suffering although it is controversial and illegal

many consider this an option and also believe it to be very similar to

abortion in certain circumstances. For instance if there life was

worse than death and they wished to abort the child it would be

because they wanted it to be at peace, this is the idea of euthanasia.

Euthanasia beyond the womb is taken into account when someone is in

great pain or considerable discomfort and they are given normally a

high dosage of drugs, possibly morphine, or valium in order to remove

the pain but and bring them to an end. But a lot of the time they

would call this double effect when your main priority is to end

suffering but as a double effect/ side effect it would bring death.

Voluntary euthanasia includes both active steps for taking life (e.g.

administration of drugs) and the withholding of life-supporting

treatment (passive euthanasia). Unacceptable forms of euthanasia would

be compulsory euthanasia, in which the patient for example, someone is

in a coma and is unable to express his or her wishes and the

responsibility for deciding to end his or her life rests on society or

a person acting on authority, normally there next of kin or closest

family. Many societies exist which wish to promote voluntary

euthanasia (e.g. The Voluntary Euthanasia Society, also known as

Exit). Voluntary euthanasia was effectively decriminalized in the

Netherlands in 1993 and the government plans to make it fully legal by

the year 2000. Full legalization was brought in by the Northern

Territory of Australia in 1995 but later revoked. It has also been

legalized in certain strictly defined circumstances in Oregon, USA in

1998. Voluntary Euthanasia is when the patient wishes for death to be

induced to reduce their suffering.

Abortion is considered justified in certain scenarios e.g. on the

grounds of incest or rape, but these types of circumstances only

account for a very small percentage of all abortions which are carried

out in the UK. Other views would be that it was the women's right and

the women's right alone as it is her body but this is not according to

the church right as when a women is pregnant she holds two lives hers

and her child's.

The catholic church has always been against any form of abortion.

Its main view is that all human life is sacred, even the baby in the

womb. The Catholic Church takes this view for a number of reasons. In

Jeremiah 1:5, it says 'Before you were formed in the body of your

mother I had knowledge of you, and before your birth I made you holy;

I have given you the work of being a prophet to the nations' this says

that even though we have not been born god had already made us and had

knowledge of us and plans for what we were going to do in life. This

backs up the theory that every human life is unique and that we are

indeed killing a unique defined human being by aborting a child. In

genesis 1:27, we are told that god made man in his image this alone

would make us sacred as we each in a way are images of God.

Sources like these help us to understand where the catholic church

gets its view from and how us as Christians should live and respect

gods laws and not just of our land.

Within the Christian Church there is generally a keen desire to

follow and apply the teachings of the Bible. However this in not easy

and a number of alternative readings of Scripture have lead to a

variety of viewpoints concerning the moral implications of abortion.

Generally the Church is united in its condemnation of abortion. Most

Christians believe abortion violates the sixth command which prohibits

murderous acts. However there is a keen debate concerning the moment a

human embryo/foetus becomes fully human (i.e. when, according to

Christian teaching, it has both body and soul). The Catholic Church

teaches that ensoulment takes place at the moment of conception and

this has been a key reason for their refusal to condone abortion

(although Thomas Aquinas taught that the soul of girls was implanted

by God at 90 days and the soul of boys at 40 days).

The Protestant Church is reluctant to take such a hard line as

Catholics do in the abortion debate. It accepts that there are certain

situations in which abortion is an unavoidable consequence of deciding

between the 'lesser of two evils' (E.g. Accepting that a women who

becomes pregnant after being raped might want an abortion) or in that

where the baby must die in order for the mother to live.

The Church believes the demand for abortions is unacceptably high.

It stresses that abortion should happen as early in the pregnancy as

possible and only after serious moral reflection. Its view on late

termination's (after 24 weeks) of handicapped foetuses is that they

should only be given if the baby is likely to die from its deformities

soon after birth according to the Church of England even so this is

still immoral.

Both the Catholic and the Protestant Churches accept abortion when the

life of the mother is in danger as a result of her being pregnant this

comes in with double effect.

There are some Christians who believe the Bible says nothing about

abortions. In one sense this is true. There is no direct teaching that

says 'You shall not kill the child within your womb' despite the fact

that abortions did happen in biblical times (there was a high infant

mortality rate). Thus the case for and against abortion is generally a

cumulative one.

In conclusion to this and this is a personal conclusion I strongly

think that mothers should considering adoption foster parents and

similar case scenarios as this can allow woman who do not have the

ability to give birth the chance to be a mother and have a child, I my

self have two adopted cousins who I love and care for and if there

biological mother had come to the conclusion that abortion was a

better idea than adoption I would not have the joy of ever meeting

them. Therefore I take the concept of catholic church in which all

kinds of abortion are wrong except that of the unavoidable.

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