Abortion: The Right to Choose, or Murder?

It doesn’t matter what laws are passed prohibiting abortion they continue to be carried out regardless. Grubby backstreet abortions where the life of the mother is put at risk as well as the aborting of her foetus, and the number of unwanted, abandoned, children increases sequentially. For example, in Rumania abortion was banned under the Ceaucescu regime and the problem of abandoned children and unwanted orphans still haunts the country to this day. There are serious social consequences that need to be taken into account when one argues in favour of banning abortion. Also, should the law have to reflect moral values. There should be areas of an individuals private life in which the law does not interfere, and is there anything more private or personal than pregnancy. Feminists would argue that as the foetus is entirely dependent on its mother for its survival then it has no right to a life beyond her wishes.

The Conservative position regarding abortion relies almost entirely on the acceptance of the unique status of human life. But can a foetus be considered a conscious sentient being? Many of those who propound the Right to Life view also regularly dine on chickens, cows and pigs, all animals at a more advanced stage of awareness than the foetus.

“Thou didst knit me together in my mother’s womb, my frame was not hidden from thee when I was being made” (psalm 139, verse 13). Most abortions are carried out between the 13th and 18th week of a pregnancy. Christians would argue that by this time the foetus has developed into an individual human being. It has the shape of a baby, it reacts to painful stimulus. It is, therefore, no longer a part of the mother but independent of her. The mother is aware of her child, she feels her child move, it is not concealed to her. Should she make the decision at this point to abort her foetus she is consciously committing murder, regardless of her reasons for doing so. Abortion, even in the case of the pregnancy being the result of rape or endangering the life of the mother is murder. If she is a Christian then the outcome should be left up to God. Others, however, would say that she should be allowed to express her Christian Free Will.

How should doctors respond to abortion? The Hippocratic Oath states that the physician should swear to save and not take human life.

I have set before you the arguments in I hope an impartial way. What do you think?