Differing Views

Abortion

Differing Views

Moral guidance in life-and-death matters has traditionally been offered by the various established religions and philosophies. However, their views are not always identical. Moreover, some of them oppose both abortion and contraception. This seems illogical to many outside observers. Some contemporary religious groups favor abortions under certain circumstances and early in the pregnancy, while others are unconditionally opposed to them, considering every abortion to be murder (except to save the life of the mother, in which case it would be self-defense). Some churches maintain that an embryo is a human life "from the moment of conception." However, scientists do not agree as to whether and when such a particular moment should be presumed to occur. In a way, it is a matter of definition. Scientifically speaking, the conception of a human being is best described not as a sudden occurrence but as a gradual, complicated process which begins with the union of an egg and a sperm cell and leads through various stages to the eventual attachment of a growing cell cluster to the uterine wall. This process is by no means automatic. It depends on a number of interrelated special conditions which are not always present. In some cases, the development takes an entirely different turn, no implantation occurs, and the fertilized egg simply degenerates. Consequently, according to general medical usage, we do not speak of a conception, i.e. the beginning of pregnancy until the implantation in the uterus has taken place.

[Course 2] [Description] [How to use it] [Introduction] [Conception] [Pregnancy] [Birth] [Infertility] [Contraception] [Abortion] [Unwanted Pregnancies] [A Moral Dilemma] [Differing Views] [A Medical Issue] [A Legal Issue] [World-wide Statistics] [Historical Notes] [Abortion Methods] [Additional Reading] [Examination]