SECTION 4 CHRISTIANITY- TOPIC 1.4.4 THE ISSUE OF ABORTION Flashcards
The nature of abortion
a termination of pregnancy
illegal in some places but number of abortions remains unchanged due to number of unsafe abortions which occur
British Law on Abortion
4 points
The 1967 Abortion Act states that an abortion can only be carried out in a medically registered facility, and only if two doctors agree on the following:
■the mother’s life is at risk
■ there is a risk of injury to the mother’s physical or mental health
■ there is a risk that another child would put the mental or physical
health of existing children at risk
■ there is a substantial risk that the baby might be born seriously
handicapped.
What are the different Christian teachings about abortion?
Have two differing attitudes to abortion:
1 The Catholic and Evangelical Pro-choice attitude
2 The liberal Protestant Pro-choice attitude
The Catholic and Evangelical Pro-choice attitude about Abortion
4
Life is holy and belongs to God, therefore only God has the right to end a pregnancy
The Ten Commandments teach that it is wrong to take life; abortion is therefore wrong
Every person has a natural ‘right to life’.
The Church points to evidence that some women who have abortions suffer from traumas leading to guilt and sometimes mental
illness.
Catholic moral philosophers use….
doctrine of double effect: the first effect is to save the mother’s life, the second (double) effect is to end the life of the foetus.
As the death of the foetus is secondary, and so not intended, an abortion has not occurred.
The liberal Protestant Pro-choice attitude
4
believe that abortion is wrong,
but it must be permitted in certain circumstances because:
-Jesus told Christians to love their neighbour as themselves, and
abortion may be the most loving thing to do.
-They believe that life does not begin at conception.
-Christians should accept technological advances in medicine, therefore if doctors have developed tests to detect disease and suffering in a foetus, parents should be allowed abortions on the basis of such tests.
-Christianity is concerned with justice and if abortions were banned, an unjust situation would arise. Rich women would pay for abortions in another country, but the poor would use ‘back-street’ abortionists.
Atheist and Humanist attitudes to abortion
-A foetus cannot be considered as a separate life until it is capable
of living outside the mother- so not taking a life
-A woman should have the right to do what she wants with her
own body in the same way that men do
-Abortion should be an automatic right for women who have been
raped or subjected to incest or paedophilia.
‘abortion on demand’-right to have an abortion whatever the
woman’s reasons
Situation Ethics and abortion
decide on the pros and cons of the possible choices and then determine what would be the most loving thing to do with most loving outcome
