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流产
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法律问题
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直到20世纪末叶，自愿流产在多数国家仍就被法律所禁止。可是，即使最严厉的刑法通常也认可了医学关于避孕的宽容观点，对使用“事后避孕药”（也叫紧急避孕药或性交后避孕药——译者注）或宫内避孕器并不实行处罚。不管是否可能受精，这些避孕措施会防止妊娠发生。确实，事实上这种避孕药品和装置被公认为避孕药具而不是堕胎药具，这就暗示着宗教关于堕胎的传统解释并未普遍为人所接受。法律也从未认可流产是谋杀的观点。如果法律接受了这样的观点，处罚为人流产者将与处罚谋杀者相同：死刑或无期徒刑。然而，事实上，对非法流产的处罚总是要轻许多。此外，卷入非法流产的大人物（所牵涉的妇女施行了流产手术）实际上根本从未被起诉过。
确实够含混的，就涉及流产的法律而言，这种古怪的踌躇表明，现代世俗国家不可能支持任何一种特殊的道德理念或宗教观念，而是倾向于寻求折中立场。事实上，现代国家不得不为不同的、常常有着信仰冲突的国人都提供服务和保护；它能够以完全理性的举措，通过立法来履行这种职责。在流产的法律调整方面，这种举措无疑地指向一个方向：让整个事务由医学做出专业判断和让个人的良心做出选择。 |
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Abortion
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A Legal Issue
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Until late in the 20th century, voluntary abortions were prohibited by law in most countries. However, even the most restrictive criminal laws usually recognized the broader scientific view of conception by providing no penalties for the use of "morning-after pills" or intra-uterine devices, which prevent the beginning of pregnancy in spite of possible fertilizations. Indeed, the very fact that such substances and devices are generally considered contraceptives and not abortifacients suggests that the traditional religious interpretations are not shared by the public at large. Neither did the laws ever reflect the opinion that abortion is murder. If they had, the penalties for abortionists would have been the same as for murderers: Death or life imprisonment. In actual fact, however, the penalties were always much less severe. Moreover, the most important person involved in the crime, the woman who had the abortion performed, was practically never prosecuted at all.
Such curious hesitancy, indeed ambiguity, on the part of the law indicates that
the modern secular state cannot support any particular moral or religious viewpoint, but tends instead to seek some position of compromise. In fact, the state, which has to accommodate and protect the adherents of many different and often conflicting beliefs, can meet this obligation only by basing its laws on purely rational considerations. In the case of abortion, such considerations point clearly in one direction: leaving the matter entirety to professional medical judgment and the conscience of the individual. |
