Abortion

• Catholic church - beginning of life:

  • Aquinas’ Natural Law has no clear directive on abortion, the tradition of the Roman Catholic Church has been to reject all forms of abortion.
  • The key debate is to at what point potential human life begins to make abortion an ethical injustice.
  • Since the magisterium teaches that life begins with conception, it is clear that abortion is contrary to Natural Law because it directly breaks the first precept.
• Assisted fertalisation:

  • assisted fertalisation through selection of embryos is also condemned by the magisterium since fertilisation and conception are seen as the same
  • it refers to this practice as ‘selective abortion’.
  • However, it does not necessarily follow that all Roman Catholics reject abortion since there are different arguments presented within Roman Catholicism.
• Exceptional circumstances:

  • Others would accept the Roman Catholic position in general but also argue that there are exceptional circumstances such as rape and incest.
• • Even in Christian theology, Aquinas appears to recognise the humanness of a foetus at ensoulment. (when a human gains a soul)
• Choice:

  • Others, like Kainz argue that the issue of abortion is also about the Primary Precept involving a woman’s right to choose whether or not to reproduce.
  • There are some Roman Catholic pro-choice groups (e.g. Catholics for Choice).