THE QUESTION:<\/p>\n
When Does Life Begin?<\/p>\n
THE RELIGION GUY\u2019S ANSWER:<\/p>\n
Those four words are regularly posed in the current abortion debate, so let\u2019s scan the lines in pregnancy that have been drawn.<\/p>\n
Pre-scientific cultures spoke of \u201c<\/u><\/em>quickening,\u201c<\/em><\/u> typically between 16 and 18 weeks, when the mother first feels the unborn child moving in her womb. A famous example involves the unborn John the Baptist in biblical Luke 1:41. Some ancient Jewish authorities in the Talmud, and Roman and Greek philosophers, supposed that the unborn child \u201cformed\u201d earlier, at 40 days<\/u>.<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s \u201cviability<\/u>,\u201d when a fetus can live on its own outside the womb, typically reached around 23 or 24 weeks, or somewhat earlier or later in individual cases. The U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion before that point in its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision<\/em>, and after viability<\/u> when there are risks to the mother\u2019s health, broadly defined.<\/p>\n The high Court on December 1 hears a case from Mississippi, which defied the Roe<\/em> ruling and bars abortions after 15 weeks <\/u>\u00a0on grounds that the fetus experiences pain by then. A Missouri law, also under court challenge, puts a ban at eight weeks<\/u> when \u201ceverything that is present in an adult human is now present in your baby,\u201d according to the American Pregnancy Association. The Court temporarily left in place a ban in Texas (likewise in 13 other states) after six weeks,<\/u> when pulsations can be diagnosed at what eventually becomes the fully formed heart.<\/p>\n Many modern Christians believe that life begins at conception<\/u> (sperm first meets egg) or implantation<\/u> (fertilized egg attaches to the mother\u2019s womb) while some put the line a bit later at twinning<\/u> (after which multiple pregnancies do not occur).<\/p>\n Note the brief filed last month in the Mississippi case by pro-choice religions including \u201cmainline\u201d Protestant churches, non-Orthodox Judaism, Unitarian Universalists, and others. It says \u201cnumerous religious traditions posit that life begins at some point during pregnancy or even after a child is born.\u201d<\/u> That perhaps refers to the judgment of some Jewish authorities that the baby only becomes a \u201cperson\u201d at birth, though that\u2019s different from when \u201clife\u201d begins.<\/p>\n Pro-choice Supreme Court briefs contend that when \u201clife begins\u201d is a question of religious \u201cbelief\u201d and therefore not the business of government to determine. That assertion is contested by conservatives such as Catholic author George Weigel, writing for First Things<\/em> magazine.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cWhen human life begins is not a matter of faith; it is a matter of scientific fact<\/em>,\u201d he writes. People believe in the conception line just like they \u201cbelieve\u201d that \u201cthe Earth is spherical, not flat; that Venus is the second planet in the solar system; that a water molecule is composed of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. . .\u201d<\/p>\n Christians like Weigel have a point if biological science determines the question. It\u2019s incontestable that at conception, or right afterward at implantation or twinning, a genetically unique entity in the human species exists that will automatically generate continual growth on its own unless abortion or natural miscarriage intervenes.<\/p>\n If so, then the question is not really \u201cwhen does life begin,\u201d which is firmly established by science. Rather, the issue religions, judges, politicians and citizens face is when protectible<\/em> life begins. Does this tiny living organism have any inherent value and right to exist, balanced against the right of the mother to abort? Why or why not, at what stage of pregnancy, under what circumstances, and who decides? That takes us beyond biology to moral decision-making.<\/p>\n On that, the Catholic Church teaches that direct abortion is illicit even if performed to save the mother\u2019s life. This is defined in the 1974 \u201cDeclaration on Procured Abortion\u201d from the Vatican doctrinal office, ratified by Pope Paul VI. Even \u201ca serious question of health, sometimes of life or death, for the mother\u201d can never \u201cconfer the right to dispose of another\u2019s life, even when that life is only beginning.\u201d Pope John Paul II affirmed this in his 1995 encyclical letter Evangelium Vitae<\/em> (\u201cThe Gospel of Life\u201d).<\/p>\n The U.S. bishops\u2019 2001 medical directive notes that the church does not forbid treatments to cure \u201cproportionately serious pathological conditions of a pregnant woman\u201d that cannot be postponed till birth, \u201ceven if they will result in the death of the unborn child\u201d as a secondary effect.<\/p>\n Among Protestants, however, even conservatives and evangelicals allow abortion to save the mother\u2019s life. So do all branches of Judaism. Consider the 2019 policy statement against New York State\u2019s viability line issued by the Rabbinical Council of America, the largest organization of Orthodox rabbis. It declares that \u201cthere is no sanction to permit the abortion of a healthy fetus,\u201d but if the mother\u2019s life is endangered then abortion is allowed, \u201ceven at a late stage.\u201d The \u201chealthy\u201d adjective indicates that some Orthodox scholars permit abortion of \u201ccompromised fetuses\u201d in \u201cextenuating circumstances,\u201d and some Protestant denominations agree.<\/p>\n The mother\u2019s-life exception has roots thousands of years ago in biblical law (Exodus 21:22-25). This passage concerns a pregnant bystander who is accidentally killed during a fight between two men. If she dies, the punishment for the killer is execution, but if only her unborn child dies a fine is paid. On that basis, Judaism\u2019s Mishnah is emphatic that the mother\u2019s life takes precedence over the fetus\u2019s life in rare cases of conflict.<\/p>\n What does Judaism say about other reasons to abort?\u00a0The late bioethics specialist David Feldman compiled many rabbinical rulings with varying stands over\u00a0 centuries in \u201cBirth Control and Jewish Law\u201d (1968). A 2019 article by Rabbi Rachel Mikva of Chicago Theological Seminary summarized much the same about the history that underlies today\u2019s Jewish debate between \u201cstringent opinions\u201d versus \u201clenient interpretations\u201d that expand \u201cjustifications based on a woman\u2019s well-being.\u201d<\/p>\n As Mikva observes, except for the Orthodox, contemporary Jews are reluctant \u201cto legislate moral questions for everyone when there is much room for debate,\u201d and they take that stance in current Supreme Court briefs.<\/p>\n [Disclosure: The Religion Guy co-authored \u201cAborting America,\u201d the autobiography of gynecologist Bernard Nathanson, an atheist at the time, who ran the nation\u2019s largest abortion clinic but then turned pro-life.]<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" THE QUESTION: When Does Life Begin? THE RELIGION GUY\u2019S ANSWER: Those four words are regularly posed in the current abortion debate, so let\u2019s scan the lines in pregnancy that have been drawn. Pre-scientific cultures spoke of \u201cquickening,\u201c typically between 16 and 18 weeks, when the mother first feels the unborn child moving in her womb. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1275,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n