ABORTION AND HUMAN LIFE

THE GOP in the USA has committed itself to banning abortion. Could this be one instance in which they have made the ‘right’ moral decision at great risk to their political aspira ‐tions?

Human life is sacred and we all have the right to live. Then, why is abortion is such a complex issue? An embryo is alive immediately it is con ‐ceived, but is not a human life. It be ‐comes a foetus after about 10 weeks of gestation, when it begins its unity with the soul. This union is not com ‐plete until the 16th week.

Until then it is not recognised as a living sentient being, in which case, it has fewer rights than a goat or a salmon. But it has always had the potential to become a human being. And if the embryo is destroyed its potential is destroyed. This is surely the issue.

At the same time, its mother in whose body the foetus exists is al ‐ready a fully sentient being with the right to live. The foetus has the right to be born and to exist; but does this override the rights of the mother in any circumstances?

If the mother’s life would be en ‐dangered by the pregnancy or birth, it is the choice between an existing human life and a potential one, and it is generally considered that the mother has priority. If her life is not threatened, it is a question of having the right to make the decision about her own body and to live her life ac ‐cordingly. Or so the argument goes.

If the foetus is considered a sen ‐tient being, then the circumstances of the conception should be irrele ‐vant, because it had no control over it, whether it resulted from poor family planning, a simple lovers’ tiff or a brutal gang rape.

Cases of rape depend on the cir ‐cumstances. If it is a gang rape, the victim may not even know who is the father. And she may associate the in ‐nocent baby’s very existence with the horrifying experience of the as ‐