“Medically, abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by any means before the foetus is sufficiently developed to survive; it is divided into spontaneous (miscarriage) and induced.”[ii] However, usually when we speak about abortion we speak about induced (procured) abortion. Procured abortion can be defined as “the deliberate and direct killing, by whatever means it is carried out, of a human being in the initial phase of his or her existence, extending from conception to birth.”[iii] “Induced abortions may be performed for reasons that fall into 4 general categories: to preserve the life or physical or mental health of the mother; to prevent the completion of a pregnancy that has resulted from rape or incest; to prevent a birth of a child with serious deformity, mental deviancy, or genetic abnormality; or to exercise birth control, that is, to keep from having a child for social or economic reasons.” [iv]
There is much debate and confusion nowadays as to when human life begins. The confusion seems unfounded, since “it is scientifically correct to say that an individual human life begins at conception.”[v] A new and unique life (a human individual) with a new set of DNA which never in history will be repeated again, is present in the womb. The life begins to grow, and the purpose of abortion is to end this life. Many supporters of abortion will refuse to acknowledge this fact, however, if it is not human life abortion ends, what is it? Supporters of abortion also claim that this human individual is not a person or does not have the status of personhood, but “how could a human individual not be a human person?”[vi] The Holy Catholic Church holds that “there are different expressions of the moral law, all of them interrelated: eternal law – the source, in God, of all law; natural law; revealed law, comprising the Old Law and the New Law, or the Law of the Gospel; finally civil[vii] and ecclesiastical laws.”[viii] The natural law can be understood solely by reason, and would lead one to believe in the revealed (old and new) law.
The natural law was placed in its most complete view by St. Thomas Aquinas. He built upon Aristotle's idea that something is good if it fulfils its nature (purpose). St. Thomas Aquinas said the purpose of being humans is to “live, work, reproduce, educate children, have and ordered society and worship God”[ix] It is deontological, meaning that there are moral absolutes and these always apply in all circumstances.
“The natural law is nothing other than the light of understanding placed in us by God; through it we know what we must do and what we must avoid.”[x] The natural laws “principal precepts are expressed in the Decalogue” [xi](Ten Commandments). There are some actions which are always contrary to this law, these are called intrinsic evils (as they never in any circumstance work towards the common good).The natural law also holds that an action is good if it fulfils its purpose. One purpose for humans is to reproduce; and according to the Ten Commandments, “you shall not kill”[xii]. Therefore abortion is an intrinsic evil as “the purpose of abortion is to produce a dead child”[xiii] and “no one can, in any circumstance, claim for himself the right to destroy directly an innocent human being”[xiv]. Central to this understanding is that “each person is created in the image and likeness of God”[xv] and therefore each human life is sacred and “must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person - among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life.”[xvi]
All Christians, believe that the killing of the innocent is condemned in the Holy Bible (see Genesis 9:4-6; Exodus 20:13; Deuteronomy 5:17; Deuteronomy 27:25; Proverbs 6:16-19) and as St. Paul says, “stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter from us [the Apostles].”[xvii] One of these Traditions is called the teaching of the Twelve Apostles or Didache, it is a 1st century Christian writing dating back to the Apostles, and it states “thou shalt not murder a child by abortion nor kill that which is begotten.”[xviii] Therefore all Christians who take their ethics from the Sacred Scriptures (and Sacred Tradition) should reject abortion and not compromise their Faith by allowing it.
[i] Abortion Statistics,
Center for Bio-Ethical Reform.
http://www.abortionno.org/Resources/fastfacts.html
[ii] New Catholic Enyclopedia 2nd Edition, Thomson Gale, 2003, vol 1. p.24.
[iii] John Paul II, The Gospel of Life: On the Value and Inviolability of Human Life, Evangelium Vitae §58
[iv] The New Encyclopaedia Brittanica Macropaedia 1991,Encyclopaedia Brittanica Inc., Chicago, vol. 1 ,p.35
[v] Professor Micheline Matthews-Roth-Harvard University Medical school
Abort73.com || Medical Testimony
Loxafamosity ministries, inc.
http://www.abort73.com/HTML/I-A-1-medical.html
[vi] Congregation for the Doctrine of the faith, Respect for human life in its origin and on the dignity of procreation, Donum Vitae, 1.1
[vii] With the purpose of civil law being the ensuring of “the common good of people through the recognition of and the defence of fundamental rights and through the promotion of peace and of public morality.” (ibid footnote 4, Donum Vitae, ch.3, Para 3)
[viii] Catechism of the Catholic Church §1952
[ix] Peter Vardy Power Point “Ethics – Natural Law – Aristotle,Aquinas& Today” slide26
[x] ibid §1955, quoting St. Thomas Aquinas
[xi] Id.
[xii] Exodus 20:13 (Revised Standard version Catholic edition [RSV CE])
[xiii] New Catholic Encyclopedia, loc. cit.
[xiv] Congregation for the Doctrine of the faith, Respect for human life in its origin and on the dignity of procreation, Donum Vitae, intro. 5
[xv] New Catholic Encyclopedia op. cit., p.25
[xvi] Catechism of the Catholic Church §2270
[xvii] 2 Thessalonians 2:15 (RSV CE)
[xviii] Didache 2:2
