Fetal Life and Abortion: Human Personhood at Conception
____________________Our Discussion
The scientific understanding
Roe v. Wade's understanding
Your understanding
Abortion is a serious, desperate choice. Since involvement frequently obscures the full view of abortion, the aspects suggested on this Page may be of value to those who wish to examine the problem from the vantage points, not only of compassion, but of reason.
We are not unmindful of the anxieties and anguish of real, live persons who become involved in the experience of abortion, especially the mothers, who are always women, frequently young women. We know of the confusion and, often, the frightening sense of loneliness and despair which accompanies the experience. We know, too, of the see-saw tensions pressing upon parents after discovering an unplanned pregnancy. We know the inner conflicts of conscience, accompanied by the outer stresses of "getting it over with" and "facing the consequences."
And we are conscious of the influences of social response to the woman's plight. We know that the father is sometimes supportive of the mother and their child, and sometimes not. We know also of the concern of people who offer the distressed parents what they feel to be the best solution for their problem. Among these we know of the Pro-Choice and the Pro-Life people and their intense, personal involvement in rendering their diverse services to assist in solving the problem.
We also feel a kinship with the object of so much dismay, the "little one" who had been ushered into the scene without any choosing of its own. We feel kinship because we were once in the same situation, just making our start in life and completely dependent on others for our survival.
WE CONSIDER IT HELPFUL to have made the above statement, because much of our document will be couched in language and content which may seem impersonal and speculative, as though it were nothing but an academic exercise. But it is real people to whom we address ourselves, and it is about real people that we are concerned. It just happens that the unhappiness of abortion cannot be eliminated without seeing it for what it is, not only emotionally, but through a process of careful reasoning.
IT IS THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS PAGE to demonstrate, with the science of Philosophy, assisted by the biological sciences, that the human being begins to exist as a person at the moment of conception and, therefore, has the right to life. In contrast, Roe v. Wade will be shown to be defective in its treatment of what it is that is being killed by abortion. YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS ISSUE WILL BE APPRECIATED AND CAREFULLY CONSIDERED.
ABORTION, ITS DEFINITION: In medical literature, the natural death of a baby before birth (miscarriage) is called an abortion. The deliberate killing of a baby before birth is also called abortion. Obviously, abortion must be understood from the context in which it finds itself. In the first instance the death is outside of human causality; in the second, it is the result of human choice. In this instance there are ethical and legal consequences to consider.
In our discussion, the word "abortion" will be used only to indicate the deliberate killing, before birth, of an offspring of human parentage. It is our intention to include in this definition all prenatal stages of the offspring's development, including its beginning, at conception.
For the sake of clarity, the death of a baby, consequent to a legitimate procedure to save the mother's life, as in the case of an ectopic pregnancy, is not to be called an abortion. In this instance there is no direct attack upon the baby's life. The ethical principle governing "the double effect" will justify this position.
In Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, the term abortion is used in the same sense in which we intend to use it, except for one important difference. These decisions are based upon the gratuitous assumption that a human life is not present at the time of conception. It is not evident whether the Court was willing to concede that a human being exists at anytime prior to birth.
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