Aborshion Euthasia

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorCollege, Undergraduate January 2002

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Some Christians believe that human life is sacred. Explain how this belief influences their attitudes to abortion and euthanasia, show that you understand other points of view A definition of abortion would be that abortion is the premature expulsion of the foetus whilst still in the womb. It is said that every foetus is a potential human being and some people would argue that abortion is simply murder as the embryo is a human from conception but others would oppose this argument.

The early Christian church generally opposed abortion. For hundreds of years, however, a debate raged in the church on whether abortion might be justifiable before animation. Christian theologians defined animation as the point at which a foetus received a soul. According to church teachings, animation occurred between 40 to 80 days after conception. From about the 1300¡¦s to the 1800¡¦s abortion before animation became a generally accepted practice in Europe, if the pregnancy endangered the life of a mother.

If an abortion was performed before animation for a less serious reason, many theologians considered it wrong but not homicide. Then In 1869, Pope Pius IX condemned abortion from the moment of conception, but some Catholic theologians continued to teach that abortions performed to save the mother were morally acceptable. It now stands that you can have an abortion upto 24 weeks after conception but after then the foetus is considered to have a life (The 1990 Abortion Act states).

Nowadays you can¡¦t say Christianity is against or for abortion but some the doctrines of curtain denominations of Christianity are mainly anti-abortion like the majority of Roman Catholics. As abortion is such a controversial issue there are no denominations that are 100% anti-abortion or 100% for abortion. They instead take very close yet very different views. Such the...