abortion part 1

AbortionA Massively Controversial IssueWith Philosophical, Theological, Ethical, and Legal

aspects to it.

Please note this is not all my own work - other sources have

been used in compiling this work.

Wednesday 31 August 2011

Facts & Case

StudiesWednesday 31 August 2011

In Britain, a woman who says she was left severely traumatised after having an abortion is trying to sue her health authority for negligence. She claims no-one warned her about emotional side-effects and would like other women to be given better counselling.

A woman who was 7 months pregnant was hit by a car in Bristol. The baby was delivered in hospital, but did not survive. The 27 year old driver will be charged with causing death by dangerous driving. If the unborn baby had died before being delivered, no such charge could have been brought.


Pro-life campaigners in America are using a murder case to try to force the federal government to recognise the foetus as an individual in cases of violent crime. The body of Laci Peterson, who was pregnant with an unborn son she intended to call Connor, was washed up on the California coast earlier this year. Soon after the bodies were discovered, Laci's husband Scott was arrested. Under California state law he was charged not with one murder, but with two - the killing of his wife and unborn baby. However, under US federal law the double charge could not be brought.


Rev Joanna Jepson was born with a cleft palate – usually very easy correct with an operation. She campaigned – unsuccessfully – to bring criminal charges against two doctors who performed a late abortion at 28 weeks in 2001. The doctors argued that a cleft palate could lead to ‘severe disability’ and abortion was therefore legal after 24 weeks. The CPS announced in March 2005 that it would not bring charges against the doctors.


Cleft palate is a treatable birth defect. It happens when the roof of the baby's mouth (palate) does not develop normally during pregnancy, leaving an opening (cleft) in the palate that may go through to the nasal cavity. A cleft can form on any part of the palate, including the front part of the roof of the mouth (hard palate) or the small flap of tissue that hangs down from the soft palate (uvula).Cleft palate and cleft lip are the most common birth defects of the head and neck. Until it is treated with surgery, a cleft palate can cause problems with feeding, speech, and hearing.


http://www.webmd.com/hw-popup/uvula

http://www.webmd.com/hw-popup/uvula

http://www.webmd.com/oral-health/cleft-lip-cleft-palate

http://www.webmd.com/oral-health/cleft-lip-cleft-palate

More than 25,000 people in Spain have asked the Roman Catholic Church to excommunicate them (they want to be kicked out of the church). Their move is in support of a Nicaraguan couple who were thrown out of the Church for allowing their young daughter to have an abortion after she was raped. The nine-year-old girl's parents said she became pregnant after she was raped in Costa Rica where they were working on a coffee plantation. She was four months pregnant at the time and medical experts warned she could die whether she had the abortion or not. The Nicaraguan authorities ruled that the parents would not face criminal charges.


Stephen Hone, 24, went to the High Courts to prevent his ex-girlfriend Claire Hansell, 31, from ending her pregnancy. Mr Hone said he would take care of the baby when it was born, but if Ms. Hansell had an abortion he would seek access to the unborn baby’s remains to arrange a funeral. Ms. Hansell had an abortion in March 2001.


Illegal abortions are killing thousands of women in South America. The WHO say that over 4 million women have illegal abortions every year in Latin America. "Unsafe and illegal abortion in Latin America is a social justice problem. Women who have no resources die,” claimed the director of Catholics For The Right To Decide. In Peru alone, an estimated 50,000 women a year either die or suffer serious complications after an illegal abortion. Many doctors in Latin America are against abortions, and there are some who report their patients to the police after they have operated on women for whom complications have arisen.


US scientists have successfully restored a woman's vision using eye cells taken from aborted foetuses.

Authorities in India have been ordered to enforce laws designed to stop the abortion of female foetuses. The Supreme Court ruled that clinics must be punished for using womb scans to determine the sex of a foetus. A children's charity claimed many Indians have abortions after ultrasound scans tell them to expect a baby girl.


A row has broken out in Australia over the use of aborted foetuses for medical research. A leading scientist has said that he has been using aborted foetuses for stem cell research for more than 20 years, but the Australian deputy prime minister has described the practice as a moral "slippery slope". Professor Bernie Tuch is currently looking at embryonic stem cells as a potential treatment for diabetes, and has said that society should view such research as a benefit for humankind. But a number of political figures have expressed concern, saying that embryonic stem cell research is ethically dubious, worried that it may "give some bizarre moral foundation to abortions".


Although the material here is presented through American eyes it should not be hard to adapt and apply it into the culture you find yourself in.Pro-life = removal of current laws allowing abortion on demandPro-choice = a woman has a right to choose what happens in her bodyJan 20 1973 - US Supreme Court - Roe v Wade case decided in favour of legalising abortionPro-choice - setting women freePro-life - an attack on the most vulnerable in society


The abortion debate in the US has intensified since that day and shows no sign of dimming - it is a great diving issue in society.Also at issue: - late abortions, called partial birth abortions- embryo research - the desire to use embryonic stem cells to try to find treatments / cures for some debilitating diseases- should abortion be illegal even if viewed as immoral?


The legal background in the USA

Numerous legal cases but 5 major ones decided in the US Supreme Court (the focus for the legal battle in the US) - these establish the right to abortion and the limits upon that right. We shall mention only the most famous one:Roe v. Wade


Roe v. Wade (1973)

Norma McCorvey (Jane Roe) claimed she had been raped and that Texas law was forcing her to complete the pregnancy even though she had been impregnated against her will and did not want to have the baby. (She later admitted she was not raped but was pregnant due to birth control failure.)The court ruled that she had a constitutional right (14th amendment) to privacy and that included her womb - so she could have an abortion.


Court ruled:The woman has a right to an abortion.The state has an interest in protecting her life and the potential life of the fetus - this increases through the trimesters of any pregnancy.A woman has a right to demand an abortion during trimester 1.After T1 the state regulates on the basis of the health of the mother (requiring use of licensed medical facilities/personnel etc.) - abortion is still available but not on demand.After viability (when a baby can live on its own outside of the mothers womb) the state can regulate / restrict abortion on the basis of mothers health.


What does the Bible say about Abortion?

Where does the Bible specifically say,“The fetus is a baby”“You should not have an abortion?”Nowhere - but the overwhelming tone of the Bible is pro-life.Ex 20:13 “You shall not murder” is applied by some - but leaves us to ask questions of the nature of the unborn - is the fetus in the womb a person with a right to life?Undoubtedly the Bible declares God is involved in fashioning life in the womb - and God cares for the unborn - so in abortion are we terminating the work of God?


However we still have to ask are we ending the life of a person?After all God creates plants and animals as well - do they have to be thought of in the same way as the human fetus?We have to establish that God attributes the same characteristics to a person inside or outside of the womb - i.e. a person exists in the womb.Picture right - 16 weeks fetus


Additional: Partial birth abortion

A controversial abortion technique - used in emergency late term cases.The baby is partially delivered but the skull remains in the womb - a cut is then made at the base of the skull through which the brain tissue is sucked out resulting in immediate death.


Additional: Partial birth abortion

This is frequently cited as infanticide by prolife people - though a small part of the fetus is still in the womb. The procedure was outlawed in the USA though it can still be used if the woman’s life is in danger.It is worth stating that although this technique is banned late term abortions are not.


The passages which will be quoted offer the strongest biblical evidence for a view of life beginning very early in pregnancy.Job 3:3 -“May the day of my birth perish, and the night that said, ‘A boy is conceived!’This form of synonymous parallelism suggests that birth and conception are the same. What was present at birth was considered equivalent to what was present at conception. Note that a boy is conceived - not a fetus, piece of tissue etc.This word - geber - is also used for man in other parts of the OT, Ex 10:11, Dt 22:5, Jdg 5:30


Jer 1:5 -“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”God appears to know Jeremiah before he was born and called him then - in just the same way he calls adults to the prophetic ministry.

Isa 49:1 -Before I was born the LORD called me; from my mother’s womb he has spoken my name.Calling and naming prior to birth - sows a strong and intimate personal interest as God shows with adults.


Psalm 139:13-16For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.


Psalm 139:13-16For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

Note here:The Psalm teaches a continuity of personal identity from the early pregnancy onwards.The person who knows God at the start of the psalm is still the same one who was intricately formed in the womb - and whose heart was known by God.The psalm suggests that a person exists in the womb not a potential person who becomes a person sometime during the gestation period.


Note that these passages use poetic language - which can be hard to interpret - but that does not mean it is not clear in meaning or that its contribution should be minimised or disregarded - figurative language is always making some literal point.Taken together these texts suggest a continuity of personal development and especially identity from the early stages of fertilisation / conception.


Psalm 51:5 -Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.David confesses that the innate inclination to sin is present from conception - birth and conception seem to be treated as synonymous.Brephos - the Greek for baby is used of Jesus as a child in the womb as well as after physical birth. See Lk 1:41-44In verse 43 Elizabeth refers to Mary as “the mother of my Lord” even though the pregnancy is very early - at a stage where many women do not even know they are pregnant - and of course, JTB jumps in his mothers womb.


In general terms the significance of the incarnation is recognised here way before birth, in fact probably at conception. It is argued therefore that the incarnation began here before Jesus’ birth - at the time he was conceived.This idea of the unborn being recognised as a person by God is seen generally throughout the Bible.However there are some passages which are thought to give a different perspective.


Ex 21:22-25 ESV"When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman’s husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if there is harm,[a] then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.Footnotes:Exodus 21:23 Or so that her children come out and it is clear who was to blame, he shall be fined as the woman’s husband shall impose on him, and he alone shall pay. If it is unclear who was to blame . . .


http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ex%2021:22-25;isa%2049:1;ps%20139:13-16;ps%2051:5;lk%201:43&version=ESV;NIV;MSG;NLT#fen-ESV-2101a

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ex%2021:22-25;isa%2049:1;ps%20139:13-16;ps%2051:5;lk%201:43&version=ESV;NIV;MSG;NLT#fen-ESV-2101a

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ex%2021:22-25;isa%2049:1;ps%20139:13-16;ps%2051:5;lk%201:43&version=ESV;NIV;MSG;NLT#en-ESV-2101

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ex%2021:22-25;isa%2049:1;ps%20139:13-16;ps%2051:5;lk%201:43&version=ESV;NIV;MSG;NLT#en-ESV-2101

Ex 21:22-25 NIV 22 “If people are fighting and hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely[a] but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman’s husband demands and the court allows. 23 But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.Footnotes:Exodus 21:22 Or she has a miscarriage


http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ex%2021:22-25;isa%2049:1;ps%20139:13-16;ps%2051:5;lk%201:43&version=ESV;NIV;MSG;NLT#fen-ESV-en-NIV-2100a

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ex%2021:22-25;isa%2049:1;ps%20139:13-16;ps%2051:5;lk%201:43&version=ESV;NIV;MSG;NLT#fen-ESV-en-NIV-2100a

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ex%2021:22-25;isa%2049:1;ps%20139:13-16;ps%2051:5;lk%201:43&version=ESV;NIV;MSG;NLT#en-ESV-en-NIV-2100

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ex%2021:22-25;isa%2049:1;ps%20139:13-16;ps%2051:5;lk%201:43&version=ESV;NIV;MSG;NLT#en-ESV-en-NIV-2100

The problem is that it is suggested that if fetus dies only a fine is paid. It is not life for life - so fetus is not equivalent to a full human being.The debate rages around whether a miscarriage takes place - or simply an early (premature) birth? The usual term for miscarriage is Heb shakal, but yasa is used here - which is usually in connection with a live birth.Rae suggests that we should read it as giving birth prematurely - but verse 23 applies life for life if a miscarriage occurs.


abortion part 1

Spiritual