CURRENT ISSUES

ABORTION

ETHICAL ISSUES

Question of personhood

Establishing the point in time when a zygote/embryo/fetus becomes a "person" is open to debate since the definition of "personhood" is not universally agreed upon.

Peter Singer argued that something can only be a person if it is self-aware and has temporal awareness. Therefore, abortion is morally acceptable, because a fetus does not meet this definition of personhood. Singer also concluded that infanticide would be permissible until the 3rd month after birth, because, at that point, self-awareness has still not been acquired.

A religious individual, on the other hand, might argue that one becomes a person at the moment of ensoulment. The precise point at which this event occurs, however, varies depending upon the religion, sect, or theologians.

Paul Ramsey and Charles Curran asserted that abortion, before 14th day of pregnancy, was acceptable, because after this point the division of the zygote through the process of monozygotic twinning becomes impossible. Current research suggests that fertilised embryos naturally fail to implant some 30% to 60% of the time. Of those that do implant, about 25% are miscarried in the first two to three weeks after pregnancy can be detected.Curran also suggested that the developing embryo should not be considered a person until its chance of survival to live birth was greater than one half.

In 1988, the Anglican Archbishop of York, John Habgood, argued that personhood begins with cellular differentiation.

The teaching of the Catholic Church holds that a human being's life begins at fertilization, and therefore abortion is always wrong. Because there are Biblical verses that can be interpreted to suggest that personhood begins at fertilization, this belief is generally held by other orthodox Abrahamic religions as well.

Sanctity of human life

In 1982, the late John Paul II said, in a speech pertaining to embryonic experimentation, "I condemn in the most explicit and formal way, experimental manipulation of the human embryo, since the human being, from conception to death, cannot be exploited for any purpose whatsoever". Members of the Catholic Church, in general, believe that all human life is sacred, and, thus, that the direct and intentional taking of an innocent human life is never a conscionable act.

However, a reverse argument could be made, in which factors that would reduce the future quality of life for the fetus to what might be defined as an insufferable degree could also be seen as violation of the sanctity of life.

If the pregnant woman's life is at risk, then, arguably, abortion could be viewed as the lesser of two evils. The Principle of Double Effect could thus be applied, as the intent of the abortion would be to preserve the life of the woman, and the death of the fetus would be a secondary consequence of this attempt.

The Catholic Church accepts the Principle of Double Effect when the death of the fetus is a secondary effect of treating the mother. For example, chemotherapy for cancer treatment may cause a miscarriage, and surgical removal of an ectopic pregnancy results in the death of the embryo. However, direct abortion with a side effect beneficial to the mother violates the Principle of Double Effect — so abortion prior to chemotherapy, or Methotrexate for ectopic pregnancy, are not acceptable.

Wikipedia®