Abortion: Philosophical Arguments

INTRODUCTION

What's contained in this post was originally presented alongside with the previous post (Abortion: A Scientific Argument). But for the sake of not making these monstrous in length, we'll break the into two parts. In this one, we'll consider some philosophical elements to the abortion debate.

IS IT HUMAN?

I once had the pro-life versus pro-choice discussion with an atheist. One of the points I made in our discussion was that an unborn baby is scientifically alive. This was his response: "Yes, it may be alive. But it is not human. It is a fetus."

How do we address this?

First, I believe that the burden of proof rests on people who make this claim. In other words, how do we know it's NOT a human? Common sense would say that there's no reason for us to think it was anything else. It's not like it's a cow or a weasel or a plant. It seems obvious that it's a human. Those who think otherwise should consider their reasons and be able to produce evidence to back up their strange claim.

But secondly, this sounds like a cop-out to me. Think about this for a second. If you were a proponent of abortion, but knew that a fetus was scientifically alive, what would you do to keep yourself from feeling bad about your worldview? Well, one option would be to simply dismiss the humanness of the baby, right? If you can explain away the fact that it's a human, you can continue to justify your stance. Thus, this seems to be less about explaining reality and more about reshaping reality to fit a pre-determined worldview.

As my conversation continued with this atheist, he explained to me what it means to be human. What he told me that in order to be human, "you must be able to survive on your own outside of the mother's womb." Now first of all, this is a very convenient definition since it eliminates the possibility of being alive inside the womb since it restricts humanness to "outside the womb." But beyond that, this ideology opens a dangerous can of worms as you may have already begun to realize. For example, some born babies can't survive on their own. Does that mean their not human? People who are on life-support can't survive on their own, are they human? A rhino can survive outside the mother's womb. Is it human? Reducing humanness to the ability to survive just doesn't seem to hold water.

THE DESTRUCTION OF POTENTIAL

Finally, consider this. You may have heard a version of this before.

"The grandmother is an alcoholic and the father spends his evenings out drinking in the taverns. The mother has tuberculosis. She has already given birth to four children. The first child is blind, the second child died, the third child is deaf, and the fourth child has tuberculosis. Now the mother is pregnant again. Given the extreme situation, would you recommend an abortion? If you said yes, you have just killed the famous composer, Ludwig van Beethoven!"

Now, from some things I read, the facts of Beethoven's family mentioned above may not be entirely correct. However, the point still stands. Potential is destroyed when an abortion takes place. Potential family members, friends, teachers, artists, athletes, politicians, and others are lost when you end a person's life.

This is simply another angle to look at this issue. It simply doesn't make a lot of sense to advocate abortions.

CONCLUSIONS

1. An unborn baby IS a human.
2. Abortion eliminates people    people with potential.

Abortion: A Scientific Argument

INTRODUCTION

As we continue with our discussion of abortion, we're going to look at a scientific argument to validate our stance that abortion is wrong and equal to murder.

THE QUALIFICATIONS FOR LIFE

One of the arguments proponents of abortion use is the idea that unborn babies are not even alive and aren't alive until they are born. Last time we made it clear that as Christians, we are to hold life in high regard. However, if a baby in the womb is not alive, then abortion cannot possibly be murder. Consequently, we must know whether or not an unborn baby is alive and at what point it does become living being.

An examination into the biological qualifications for life will result in various criteria that must be met. Some say there are x number of qualifiers while others say there are y number of qualifiers. But when you examine all of them and boil them down to their basic components, I believe there are 6 consistent themes. For a creature to be considered alive, it must
(1) be composed of cells,
(2) have levels of organization,
(3) take in and use energy,
(4) respond to stimuli or its environment,
(5) grow,
and (6) reproduce.

Let's look at these individually and see if they applies at conception.

(1) A living organism must be composed of cells. This one is pretty clear. We know that at conception, the fetus is composed of cells.

(2) A living organism must have levels of organization. Levels of organization would include layers such as tissue, organs, organ systems, etc. Obviously a fetus has distinct organs and organ systems later in development. But what about early in it's development. Well, consider this. We know that single-celled bacteria are alive, right? Right. Even though they are composed of a single cell, they have levels of organization such as the plasma membrane, cytoplasm, nucleus, etc. Thus, at conception, a fetus is composed of cells that have levels of organization. Therefore, it meets this criteria.

(3) A living organism must be able to take in and use energy. As you should know, at fertilization, the fetus begins taking in nutrition from the mother and converting that into energy used to grow. If it did not do this, it would never grow.

(4) A living organism must be able to respond to stimuli or to its environment. There are several examples that we can point to that demonstrate that this is true for an unborn baby. First, it has been observed that babies do respond to the pain that comes from some forms of abortion. Second, unborn babies are able to respond to their mother's voice. Thirdly, from day 1, the baby has the ability to protect itself from harmful substances. An example of this would be that if a mother uses drugs while pregnant, the baby does have the ability to protect itself and survive. Does it always succeed? No. But it does have that ability beginning at fertilization.

(5) A living organism must be able to grow. This is clearly true for a fetus beginning at conception.

(6) A living organism must be able to reproduce. Obviously an unborn baby cannot produce viable offspring. Does this mean it fails this last criteria? Let's think a little bit deeper by considering another creature. A mule is the result of a horse and a donkey mating. However, mules cannot produce viable offspring. Does that mean the mule is dead? No. What qualifies it is the simple fact that it's living cells reproduce themselves. This is the case in all large creatures: their cells are continually reproducing in order to grow and/or replace dead cells. When it comes to a fetus, we know that it's cells are reproducing as that is the cause for it's growth. So even though at first glass, this seems to be the killing criteria, a fetus meets this one too.

CONCLUSION

All of these are true on day 1! Therefore, life begins at conception. What does this mean? It means that an unborn baby is just as alive as a full-grown human and therefore deserves the same right to protection of it's life as anyone else.

Abortion: The Biblical Argument

INTRODUCTION

As we begin a new semester, we're going to move from an examination of the foundation of moral thinking to an application of moral thinking. We're going to do this by spending time on various ethical issues that are not just critical issues, but issues that are discussed frequently in our culture.

We're going to begin by spending several weeks on the topic of abortion.

SIGNIFICANCE

Now abortion isn't just a hot-button topic, a lot hangs in the balance: human life. Of course, whether you believe that abortion is killing or not, we can all agree that millions of people don't exist today because of abortion. And obviously, if you do believe that abortion equates to murder, then this topic is of great significance.

To put some of this in perspective and emphasize the fact that a lot rests on how what you think of this issue, I want to share a few statistics.

A report came out recently with some astonishing numbers relating to the issue. You can view details of the report here. Here's some of the numbers that the research revealed.

- There have been 1 billion abortions worldwide in the last 100 years.

- There are roughly 12.5 million abortions every year

- Every six months of abortions is equal to the total death toll of the holocaust (about 6 million).

- Labeled the "greatest genocide in history."

- The numbers do not include abortions caused by abortifacient forms of contraceptives.

These are staggering numbers when you slow down to think about it. To make it more personal, consider this. For the purpose of illustration, let's suppose for a moment that 10 billion people have been born in the last 100 years (considering the current world population and birth rates, this isn't a bad guess). Now, if 1 billion babies have been aborted in that same time period, that would mean that somewhere around 1 out of every 10ish people who are born don't actually make it because of abortion. Since Dinner and Dialogue took place amongst a group of about 20, we were able to suppose for the sake of argument that there were perhaps 2 people missing from our group because of abortion. Obviously such a claim can't be proven, but the point remains: more abortions occur than what we'd normally think.

AN ATTITUDE OF LOVE

Before we derive our opinion on this topic from Scripture, it's important that we make note of something very important. 

Because abortion is a very sensitive issue, and one that many deal with and have dealt with personally, we must be extremely loving in how we talk about it and interact with people who've dealt with it. Why? Because God extends love and forgiveness towards people who have gone through this. Our attitude should be the same.

THE BIBLICAL ARGUMENT

But we still need to know what to believe on the issue. In this first part of our abortion discussions, we're going to address what the Bible says our stance should be. In future weeks, we'll take other approaches to enhance our understanding of this topic.

Let's begin by looking at a few verses that discuss the value of life. Why is life important?

God formed us! Psalm 139:13-16 - "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." This seems to imply a preciousness to life - especially unborn life.

God knew us! Jeremiah 1:5 - "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."

God made us in His image! Genesis 1:27 - "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." We are created in the image of God. That alone assigns incredible value.

God wants us to have life! John 10:10 - "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." This verse contrasts Satan's efforts to destroy and God's value for life.

Now, none of these verses say "abortion is bad" but they show the sanctity of life and even seem to imply a problem with abortion. But let's look at two verses that address the topic more directly.

Jeremiah 20:17 - "For he did not kill me in the womb, with my mother as my grave, her womb enlarged forever." Some believe that abortion is fine because an unborn child is not alive. However, this verse talks about being killed in the womb. But you obviously cannot "kill" something that's not alive. Therefore, this verse insinuates that unborn babies are in fact alive.

Exodus 21:22-25 - "If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman's husband demands and the court allows. But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise."

Some translations of this passage are used to eliminate the notion that this is a pro-life verse. Above is the NIV version that seems to be translated to incorporate the original meaning of the text. If you do an in-depth study of this passage, you see that this verse is best understood as written below.

Exodus 21:22-25 (enhanced to emphasize original meaning) - "If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury (to the woman or the baby), the offender must be fined whatever the woman's husband demands and the court allows. But if there is serious injury (to the woman or the baby), you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise."

John Piper has a great article that breaks down the original Hebrew words and meanings in this passage. You can find it here. But what this passage indicates is that if a baby dies in the womb, God saw it as a LIFE that was lost. Thus, abortion, which ends a life in the womb, would biblically qualify as murder.

CONCLUSION

What can we conclude?

- Abortion is a significant issue with millions of people dead because of it.

- We need to treat this topic with an extra dose of love.

- God values life.

- Abortion is murder.

Come to the Table

Conversation about difficult and controversial issues poses a healthy challenge for the follower of Jesus. On one hand, we want to stand with Jesus for truth, but on the other, we want to walk and talk with the grace He exuded during His life and ministry. As the Apostle John records, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." John 1:14 (ESV). How can we walk with "grace and truth" like Jesus did? After all, truth is a non-negotiable reality, right? Something is either right or wrong, good or bad. How do we communicate truth with love?

What does it look like to have a difficult conversation about abortion or sexuality or the exclusivity of salvation through Jesus Christ alone when someone who disagrees with us is sitting right across the table? It's interesting how the conversation must be handled with extra grace and humility when you're at the table with people who hold different views than you do.

This semester as we talk about a number of tough ethical issues facing our culture today, we want to make every effort to talk in a way that invites people of varying views to "come to the table."

Here's the bullet points from Thursday's discussion: