Abortion Essay Research Paper Abortion What is — страница 4

known, written in 70CE, it read: “You shall not kill by abortion the fruit of the womb and you shall not murder the infant already born.” What it says, is simply that abortion is as wrong as the killing of a child (infanticide). But St. Augustine (1st century) had declared that the soul was planted in the foetus, by God, on day 46. Thomas Aquinas (13th century) preached that the souls of humans were planted, by God, at day 90 for girls and day 40 for boys. Therefore Catholic?s had believed that, as long as abortion was carried out before the soul was present in the foetus, it was not morally wrong. Now in the present day Catholic?s believe abortion is always wrong, they feel so strongly in Scotland that they are prepared to offer financial support to the mother of a child, so

that she keeps the baby and does not opt for abortion. This has been a controversial issue of late as the church have tried to persuade a 12 yr. Old girl who has found herself pregnant to keep the baby by offering money. The reasons behind the churches actions are described in The Express newspaper, October 11 1999, by Eileen Bryden, a counsellor for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (a Pro Life supporter): “It is not an ideal situation given her age. But the girl is pregnant and abortion is the deliberate killing of an unborn child. It is natural for her to go ahead with the pregnancy and every effort to support her through it should be welcomed. I think that Cardinal Winning, like any other groups, offers a lifeline. Once a woman is pregnant she is a mother.

The decision is whether she is going to be the mother of a living child or a dead child. That?s the bottom line.” She defends the action of the church by saying that they are trying to help her be able to make the right decision. The money is given because she could not afford a child and the extra income would mean she could opt to keep the baby, instead of committing murder by having the baby aborted. Some of the other Christian churches, such as some Church of England Christians, perceive abortion to be wrong, but to be the best way out of a bad situation. “The Church of England believes that all human life, including life developing in the womb, is to be protected.” Church of England Report This is a very similar statement to that of the Catholic church, they also see

the foetus as a life, but unlike the Roman Catholic view that it is a complete person they see it as a developing one. “It also recognises that there are situations in which abortion is justified (namely the risk of a defective or deformed child and in cases of incest and rape.” Church of England This is where the differences between the two churches (both under the religion of Christianity) begin to differ in opinion. The majority of Roman Catholic?s believe that abortion is always wrong but here, the Church of England is said to believe that there are, in fact, cases where abortion should be available as an option. The Church of England agree with the second section of the Abortion Act 1967, where abortion is justified when the child is known to have serious mental or

physical disabilities. They also agree that it is permitted if the pregnancy has come about because the mother was a victim of either incest or had been raped. There are no references in the bible that states whether abortion is right or wrong, but there are examples of teachings that could be used to explain why God would excuse abortion, the life of Jesus is a good example of what people would use. Jesus was portrayed as a person who cared about everyone, no matter what problems they had, whether it was financial, emotional or physical. He helped many suffering disabled people and saw the poverty that others lived in. He would have wanted the suffering of these people to stop. From this it can be concluded that the suffering could have been prevented, if the parents had known

that this was the kind of life that the foetus inside the mother was likely to lead, that it?s disability would mean they would not have a good quality of life and therefore could have prevented the child from unnecessary agony. Jesus throughout his life was forgiving of others, he always emphasised that if you were truly sorry for something that you had done, then God would forgive you, as no one is perfect. “God loves the sinner, but hates the sin.” “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9 This famous saying and quote from the Bible back up this theory that God will forgive if the sinner repents. Therefore if a woman felt that abortion was the best option for her and was sorry for