Religious Opinions and Views on Abortion
In examining religious opinions on abortion, one must find common ground on which to form a foundation of comparison. With most of the religions to date, that common ground lies on the argument of whether or not a fetus is an actual person. Some religions protest by saying a fetus isn't a conscious being -- therefore there is no loss in doing away with it. But for those religions that do believe there is a life -- or any spiritual being -- in a fetus, it is clearly a crime to have an abortion.
Through research an overall conclusion can be provided that most earlier religions, that is those before 1400 A.D., relied on the opinion of the doctor to determine whether abortion was right or not. If abortion would harm the mother, or the child, or both, then the abortion was acceptable. In Christianity, this was only true in some denominations, such as Baptists and Methodists. In these cases, a woman was not disgraced after having an abortion unless she went against the advice of a professional. However as Christianity has developed, this opinion has remained constantly opposite in Catholicism. Catholic theorists in particular have expressed intense, concrete views on the subject. These views clearly have more to do with a change in attitude regarding the moral status of a fetus than a change in attitude regarding sex. It is important not to confuse the two.
The question "Why was abortion condemned in Catholicism?" was answered by Catholic theorist James McCarthy: "Many people believe that the Roman Catholic Church's opposition to abortion stems from its conviction that a new human person exists from the first moment of conception and that this newly formed person has as muc...
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...istianity approve, so they aren't credible either. So it seems that religion will always provide exceptions for its theories that aren't supposed to have any. Is abortion right? Think for yourself. Turning to religion leads only to confusion.
Bibliography:
Works Cited
Dombrowski, Daniel A. A Brief, Liberal, Catholic Defense of Abortion.
Illinois: Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois, 2000.
Miller, Gary. Notes from and interpretations of The Jewish Talmud. (Acquired through personal interview).
The Holy Bible: NIV version. Michigan: Grand Rapids. Zondervan Publishing House,
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Ward, F. Is the Fetus a Person? The Bible's View. 15 Jan. 2001. Religion and Choice
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Abernethy, Virginia. "Abortion". World Book Encyclopedia. Vers. 94.1.
New York: World Book, Inc. 1994.
...t it is immoral. I also see that it may not be immoral for a woman to abort if she has made the most effort to avoid pregnancy using contraceptives. However, as Thompson states, I think in this situation a mother “ought” not to have an abortion. A fetus should have the right to life, however the mother should also have the right to determine how to use her own body. So I too find it difficult to determine a solid stance on this issue. I’ve always believe that a fetus is a person, but I’ve also always struggled to discern when it is that the fetus becomes a person. Regardless of whatever science can prove or not regarding when a fetus is a person or however much argumentation is done regarding the permissibility of abortion, this topic will forever be surrounded by debate. I don’t believe there will ever a unanimous opinion on whether or not abortion is moral.
According to St. Thomas Aquinas, Catholic priest and philosopher, a fetus is not a human being because it does not possess language or articulated thought - one of the defining aspects of human nature (qtd. in Eco 51). Theoretically speaking, a fetus is not a human until it can think and talk. With that being clarified, the rest of the essay will first include arguments for, and then arguments against, abortion. Karen Pazol, et al.
The Christian view, that we are created in the image of God, formed by Him in the womb making us human upon conception, makes abortion wrong. It shows what abortion truly is, murder. Murder that is the sacrifice of a human life to the ‘god’ of convenience. While abortion may seem to solve immediate problems for some, this act is wrong and has consequences much worse than the consequences, joys, of having and raising a
What is abortion? Abortion is the direct and purposeful taking of the life of a human being inside the womb. The church teaches that abortion is forbidden just as murder is forbidden. As Catholics we believe that all life is sacred from the moment of conception till death, and the killing of a human being unborn or born is morally wrong and we are to go against abortion.
The Roman Catholic Catechism teaches that at the moment a sperm enters an egg, a life is formed, so, “a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person” (“Catechism of the Catholic Church”). The Church also condemns abortion for any reason, because it is considered murder, a crime, a grave evil, and a mortal sin. Also, elective abortion for personal or social convenience is forbidden by some religious groups, but many religious denominations believe that there are certain circumstances where abortion is justified: “... a pregnancy that threatens the life of the mother or that has come about as the result of rape or incest” ("Religious Groups’ Official Positions on Abortion"). Such a view is sanctioned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Episcopal Church; Evangelical Lutheran Church; Hinduism; Islam; and Judaism. Although there is conflict between religious denominations over the issue on what is morally right on abortion, many agree on the importance of the well being of the mother in considering whether or not it is ethically right to
In 1990, the number of abortions in the U.S increased in number to 1.55 million a year and remained at this level for about 10 years(NRLC 2). After all this time, it seems that mankind has finally started to realize the dignity of a human person. The Catholic Church teaches formal participation in the act of an abortion is a grave offense and that since the time of the First Century, the Church has declared righteous evil of every performed abortion(Catechism of the Catholic Church 548). The Catholic moral law of the church is that "You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish. God, the Lord of Life, has entrusted to men the noble mission of safeguarding life, and men mus...
Thou shalt not kill; one-tenth of what may arguably be the most famous guidelines of morality in the western culture, and also the main driving force for pro-life advocates. The argument supporting their beliefs typically starts with the premises that a fetus is a person, and to destroy or to kill a person is unethical. Therefore abortion, the premeditated destruction of a human being, is murder, and consequently unethical. I deny the fact that the fetus, what I will refer to as an embryo up to 22 weeks old, has the right to live. The opposing argument is invalid because a fetus, although perhaps a part of human species, is not formally a person. This leaves it simply to be a part of the woman?s body, whose fate lies solely in the hands of the pregnant woman alone, no different from a tumor she might have. By proving this, the abortion debate then becomes an issue of women?s rights, something that is most controversial indeed. Furthermore, it is fair to question the credibility of many people against abortion because of obvious contradictions in the logic of their belief systems. The fact that this debate is relevant in modern society is ludicrous since there is a simple and plausible solution to this problem that could potentially end the debate for good, leaving both sides satisfied.
Abortion is one of the most debated topics, some people believe it is immoral while others support this issue. Abortion is define as termination of pregnancy before birth. This article was published by Dennis Prager, who wrote a story that was titled, “Jews and Abortion”. I decided to review this article because most of the world religions are anti-abortion but some religions do allow it. For example, Judaism does not prohibit abortion, it’s one of the many religions that does not perceive abortion as murder, and rather they see it as a need if the mother's life becomes at risk due to the pregnancy. In Judaism an abortion can only be perform only if the child will directly cause the mother to die if it is not aborted.
Abortion is a voluminous topic today all around the world. Differing viewpoints on abortion are recognized in politics, religion, and throughout the general population. There is a small amount of people who are nonchalant on the subject. Women have abortions for many different reasons and according to certain groups these reasons are either justified or not. Everyone tends to have their own articulated opinion, and many vocalize tenaciously what they believe. Pro-life individuals along with religion are sanguine that abortion is ethically and morally erroneous. Whereas those who are pro-choice say that abortion is inconsequential and the mother’s choice is more important than the fetus. Reasons to not get an abortion include risks involved in receiving an abortion. In some cases death can occur. However, there are other alternatives to abortion. For example, raising the child and adoption.
The criterion for personhood is widely accepted to consist of consciousness (ability to feel pain), reasoning, self-motivation, communication and self-awareness. When Mary Anne Warren states her ideas on this topic she says that it is not imperative that a person meet all of these requirements, the first two would be sufficient. We can be led to believe then that not all human beings will be considered persons. When we apply this criterion to the human beings around us, it’s obvious that most of us are part of the moral community. Although when this criterion is applied to fetuses, they are merely genetic human beings. Fetuses, because they are genetically human, are not included in the moral community and therefore it is not necessary to treat them as if they have moral rights. (Disputed Moral Issues, p.187). This idea is true because being in the moral community goes hand in hand w...
In A Defense of Abortion (Cahn and Markie), Judith Thomson presents an argument that abortion can be morally permissible even if the fetus is considered to be a person. Her primary reason for presenting an argument of this nature is that the abortion argument at the time had effectively come to a standstill. The typical anti-abortion argument was based on the idea that a fetus is a person and since killing a person is wrong, abortion is wrong. The pro-abortion adopts the opposite view: namely, that a fetus is not a person and is thus not entitled to the rights of people and so killing it couldn’t possibly be wrong.
...evil. To treat pregnancy as a disease that can be “cured” with methods of contraception and abortion is morally wrong. All people are specially made in the image and likeness of God from the moment of conception. The arguments defending pro-choice all describe how there are certain circumstances when an abortion must occur. However, unless the mother’s life is absolutely threatened, abortion is a sin that ends the life of a child of God.
Abortion is defined as a procedure that is done to remove an embryo or fetus from the uterus of its mother in order to prevent its birth (Roth, 2005). Abortion is categorized as a bioethical issue because it relates to the morals of biomedical advances, policies and research. Abortion is a difficult subject that can involve personal morals and beliefs, legality and religious values. The issue is often viewed from either the side of pro-life, which places emphasis on the fetus and its right to life or pro-choice, which emphasizes the rights of the mother to decide the appropriate action (Roth, 2005). This brings the ethical question of should the government have the right to outlaw abortion into debate. The two viewpoints of pro-life and pro-choice explore the two main moral issues concerning abortion (Roth, 2005).
One of the most controversial issues in this day and age is the stance people take on abortion. The two main positions that people take are either of pro-choice or pro-life; both sides, although polar opposites, tend to refer to both the issue of morality and logical rationale. The pro-life side of the debate believes that abortion is an utterly immoral practice that should be abolished. On the contrary, abortion should remain a legal procedure because it is a reproductive right; its eradication would not only take away the pregnant person’s autonomy, but would also put more children in financially unstable homes and the adoption system, and would cause an increase in potentially fatal, unsafe abortions.
Abortions have always been a very controversial topic. Over the years we continue to fight for or against it. One can say that is one of the most talked and argued topic in the United States. An abortion is when a woman terminates her pregnancy before the fetus is viable using various of methods. Some argue that abortions should be illegal and considered murder, while others, from a religious point of view, say that no one has the right to take away the life of a person, in this case the fetus. However, others insist, that abortions are a basic women’s right.