Ethical-anthropological status of the embryo. Abortion:

 

28. Ethical-anthropological status of the embryo. Abortion: definition, typologies, argumentation and morally differentiated evaluation with reference to the teaching of the Church.

 

Introduction: Current biological definitions of ‘human embryo’ there has been a consensus within the scientific literature that a human embryo is an entity in its earliest stages of development that is less than eight weeks gestation. After eight weeks it is then considered to be a foetus. There is a difference of opinion as to which points of biological development should be covered by the term ‘embryo’.

pollard has described an embryo in similar words: ‘the union of sperm-and egg- derived genomes can be considered as the end of fertilization and the beginning of embryonic development.’

This broad definition of human embryo(i.e. the human entity development from fertilization until the fetal stage) is commonly used by the general public. Misunderstandings do arise between the community using this general definition and Scientists using the second, more restricted definition which is described below.

From a Scientific perspective, McLaren(1986) states that the practice of using the term ‘embryo’ for the entire product of the fertilized egg, most of which differentiates before the formation of the primitive streak into tissues that will protect and nourish the future embryo, has led to much confusion in the general community.

Restricted definition by Johnson and Selwood (1996) describe a human embryo as existing only from the time of gastrulating, which is approximately 16 days post-fertilization.

This is the embryonic phase during which the embryo is developing.

 

Abortion: Today abortion has become a burning issue and a severe problem. It’s being an issue of extreme controversy, arouses strong feelings on the two sides of the debate. Those that oppose the discussion call it murder and condemn any idea whatsoever of a woman “playing God” with the life of a human. On the other hand, those who advocate for it claim that it is a person`s right to do what she deems best for her own body (womb) and child. But abortion is not simply a moral issue which can be isolated from Christian faith. The Catholic Church has always condemned abortion as a grave evil.

Origin of Abortion: Abortion was a common practice in the ancient world. Evidences show that induced abortion was certainly practiced in the ancient societies. The oldest known recipe for abortifacients comes from an ancient Egyptian “Ebers papyrus” dating back 1550 BCE, which lists substances that terminate pregnancy in the first. Second and third trimesters. Egyptian “Ebers papyrus” is the first recorded evidence of induced abortion. A Chinese record documents the number of royal concubines who had abortions in China between the years 515 and 500 BCE. According to Chinese folklore, the legendary Emperor Shenong prescribed the use of mercury to induce abortions nearly 5000 years ago. Centuries ago Chinese women drank lead and mercury to control fertility, although this often resulted in sterility or even death. Many of the methods employed in early and primitive cultures were non-surgical. Physical activities like strenuous labour, climbing, paddling, weight lifting, or driving were a common technique. Others included the use of irritant leaves, fasting, bloodletting, pouring hot water onto the abdomen, and lying on a hard coconut shell. In primitive cultures, techniques developed through observation, adaptation of obstetrical methods, transculturation. Archaeological discoveries indicated early surgical attempts at the extraction of a fetus. However, such methods are not believed to have been common. Abortion in Greek and Roman history comes from the early classical texts which show that abortion was common in both ancient Greece and Rome, although not nearly as widespread as infanticide. The timing of animation or ensoulment was of great interest to Greek philosophers.

 

1.1. Meaning/Definition of Abortion: The word “Abortion” comes from Latin abortionem (nominative abortio) “miscarriage; abortion, procuring of an untimely birth, “noun of action from past-participle stem of aboriri” to miscarry, be aborted, fail, disappear, pass away”, a compound word used in Latin for deaths, miscarriages, sunsets, etc., which according to OED is from “ab” means “amiss” or “off, away”; + stem of “oriri” means “appear, to be born, arise”.Abortion is the ending of pregnancy by the removal or forcing out from the womb of a fetus or embryo before it is able to survive on its own. Therapeutic abortion is defined as removal of the product of conception before it attains viability for very serious reasons usually connected with the probable danger to the life of the mother. “Abortion is generally described as the termination of pregnancy. It is terminated by the removal of the child from the womb by killing the baby and that is done by several methods. It is a medical procedure involving a tiny living, growing, and even moving, sleeping and crying human being”.

The ethics of abortion turns no several central facts: (1) Procreation as a potential outcome of sexual activity, (2) the status, values or rights of Unborn human life, (3) the welfare of pregnant women, including self-determination of reproductive capacity and protection from physical, mental and social harm and (4) the interests of others, such as the father, the family and the religious and civil communities in the numbers, timing, respected, all other things being equal. The moral dilemma of abortion arises in precisely those situations is which not all values can be given equal support or in which support of one precludes another. Disagreements about the morality of abortion arise from differing evaluation of the relative priority of these values in conflict cases.Abortion is defined as the expulsion of the fetus prior to viability. Some authors use the terms “feticide” for the destruction of the fetus prior to viability and “infanticide” for the post-viability, late-term abortion.  Abortion is the deliberate destruction of an unborn human being contrary to the law of God and is a morally evil act.

Methods of Abortion: During the first three months of pregnancy, these are the usual methods for abortion:

 

a. Suction Aspiration: The mouth (Cervix) of the womb is stretched open. A suction curette (hollow tube with a knife-like top) is inserted into the womb. A strong suction tears the body into pieces, drawing it all into a container. This is the most common method of abortion. Great care must be used to prevent the womb from being damaged.

b. Dilatation and Curettage (D & C): This is similar to the suction method, except for the use of a sharp loop-shaped knife (curette). The knife cuts the baby apart. The pieces are then removed through the cervix.

c. RU 486 or Prostaglandin: In France and Great Britain, two powerful synthetic steroids are used to abort for women who are 5-7 weeks pregnant. Four visits to an abortion facility are required in France over a two-week period. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has imposed an Import Alert on RU 486, prohibiting importation into the U.S. for personal use because of the dangers to women. One woman has died and two have suffered life-threatening heart attacks in France. Ninety-seven percent of women using this technique take both RU 486 and prostaglandin.

d. Dilatation and Evacuation: The mouth (cervix) of the womb is stretched open. The opening must be larger than for a suction aspiration. Specially designed tools are used to dismember the body of the baby and to crush the baby’s skull. No fetal anesthetic is used. All of the dissected and crushed parts of the baby’s body are removed with ring forceps. This method is used from the 13^th through the 24^th week of pregnancy.

e. Saline Injection (Salt Poisoning): A concentrated salt solution is injected into the sac surrrounding the baby. The baby inhales and swallows the solution, has convulsions, and dies one to two hours later from salt poison, dehydration and hemorrhages of internal organs. The mother goes into labor. A dead or dying baby is delivered 24 or 48 hours later.

f. Prostaglandin-Abortion: Prostaglandins are hormones that induce labor. They are injected inside the body surrounding the baby or given in a shot or vaginal suppository form. The mother than goes into labor, giving birth to a child either dead or too young to survive. Sometimes poisonous salts are injected with the Prostaglandin to kill the baby.

g. Hysterotomy: Like a Caesarean section, the abdomen and the womb are opened surgically. In the hysterotomy, however, the baby, who is lifted out, is usually too young to survive without immediate medical treatment. The baby is put aside to die.

1.5. Arguments of Abortion: There are valuable reasons favor and against abortion. The following fundamental values are at stake here.

 

A. Argument Favor Abortion: 1. Abortion is a private decision. Every woman has the right to do what they want to with their own body. Since the baby is part of a woman’s body, a woman has the right to abort. The US Supreme Court has declared abortion to be a “fundamental right” guaranteed by the US Constitution. The landmark abortion case Roe v. Wade, decided on Jan. 22, 1973 in favor of abortion rights, remains the law of the land. The 7-2 decision stated that the Constitution gives “a guarantee of certain areas or zones of privacy,” and that “This right of privacy... is broad enough to encompass a woman’s decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy”.

2. Reproductive choice empowers women by giving them control over their own bodies. The choice over when and whether to have children is central to a woman’s independence and ability to determine her future. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote in the 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, “The ability of women to participate equally in the economic and social life of the Nation has been facilitated by their ability to control their reproductive lives”. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote in her dissenting opinion in Gonzales v. Carhart (2007) that undue restrictions on abortion infringe upon “a woman’s autonomy to determine her life’s course, and thus to enjoy equal citizenship stature”. CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, JD, stated that Roe v. Wade was “a landmark of what is, in the truest sense, women’s liberation”.

3. Personhood begins after a fetus becomes "viable" (able to survive outside the womb) or after birth, not at conception. Embryos and fetuses are not independent, self-determining beings, and abortion is the termination of a pregnancy, not a baby. A fetus is not a person and, if you abort it, you do not actually kill it. A person's age is calculated from birth date, not conception, and fetuses are not counted in the US Census. The majority opinion in Roe v. Wade states that “the word ‘person’, as used in the Fourteenth Amendment (of the US Constitution), does not include the unborn.”

 

4. Modern abortion procedures are safe and do not cause lasting health issues such as cancer and infertility. A peer-reviewed study published by Obstetrics & Gynecology in Jan. 2015 reported that less than one quarter of one percent of abortions lead to major health complications. A 2012 study in Obstetrics & Gynecology found a woman's risk of dying from having an abortion is 0.6 in 100,000, while the risk of dying from giving birth is around 14 times higher (8.8 in 100,000). The study also found that “pregnancy-related complications were more common with childbirth than with abortion”. The American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists stated “Abortion is one of the safest medical procedures performed in the United States”. They also said the mortality rate of a colonoscopy is more than 40 times greater than that of an abortion. The National Cancer Institute (NCI), the American Cancer Society (ACS), and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists all refuted the claim that abortion can lead to a higher probability of developing breast cancer.

5. Women who receive abortions are less likely to suffer mental health problems than women denied abortions. A Sep. 2013 peer-reviewed study comparing the mental health of women who received abortions to women denied abortions found that women who were denied abortions “felt more regret and anger” and “less relief and happiness” than women who had abortions. The same study also found that 95% of women who received abortions “felt it was the right decision” a week after the procedure. Studies by the American Psychological Association (APA), the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges (AMRC), and researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health all concluded that purported links between abortion and mental health problems are unfounded.

6. Abortion gives pregnant women the option to choose not to bring fetuses with profound abnormalities to full term. Some fetuses have such severe disorders that death is guaranteed before or shortly after birth. These include anencephaly, in which the brain is missing, and limb-body wall complex, in which organs develop outside the body cavity. It would be cruel to force women to carry fetuses with fatal congenital defects to term. Even in the case of nonfatal conditions, such as Down syndrome, parents may be unable to care for a severely disabled child. Deborah Anne Driscoll, MD, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Pennsylvania, said “many couples... don’t have the resources, don’t have the emotional stamina, don’t have the family support (to raise a child with Down syndrome)”.

7. A baby should not come into the world unwanted. Having a child is an important decision that requires consideration, preparation, and planning. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment stated that unintended pregnancies are associated with birth defects, low birth weight, maternal depression, increased risk of child abuse, lower educational attainment, delayed entry into prenatal care, a high risk of physical violence during pregnancy, and reduced rates of breastfeeding. 49% of all pregnancies among American women are unintended.

8. Abortion reduces crime. According to a study co-written by Freakonomics co-author Steven D. Levitt, PhD, and published in the peer-reviewed Quarterly Journal of Economics, “legalized abortion has contributed significantly to recent crime reductions”. Around 18 years after abortion was legalized, crime rates began to drop abruptly, and crime rates dropped earlier in states that allowed abortion earlier. Because “women who have abortions are those most at risk to give birth to children who would engage in criminal activity”, and women who had control over the timing of childbearing were more likely to raise children in optimal environments, crime is reduced when there is access to legal abortion.

9. Abortion is justified as a means of population control. Philosopher Peter Singer, MA, Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, defended abortion as a way to curb overpopulation. The United Nations estimated that the world’s population will increase to 9.3 billion by 2050, which would be “the equivalent of adding another India and China to the world”, according to the Los Angeles Times. Malnutrition, starvation, poverty, lack of medical and educational services, pollution, underdevelopment, and conflict over resources are all consequences of overpopulation. With 43.8 million abortions performed worldwide in 2008, the population increase if abortion were unavailable could be substantial.

10. Many religious organizations and people of faith support women’s reproductive choice. Although many religious groups oppose abortion, the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church, and the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations are all officially pro-choice. The Bible, despite interpretations to the contrary, contains no explicit condemnation of abortion, and does not portray the killing of a fetus as equivalent to the killing of a human being. In Exodus 21:22-25, the crime of causing a woman to miscarry is treated as a property crime, whereas killing the woman is considered murder and is punished with the death penalty. While the Catholic and Lutheran churches oppose abortion, more of their members believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases versus illegal in all or most cases (51% vs. 45%, Lutheran; 48% vs. 45%, Catholic). Joe Biden, 47th US Vice President, stated in Oct. 2012 that “I accept my church’s position on abortion... But I refuse to impose it on equally devout Christians and Muslims and Jews, and I just refuse to impose that on others...”.

B. Argument against Abortion: 1. Abortion is a murder. The killing of an innocent human being is wrong, even if that human being has yet to be born. Unborn babies are considered human beings. The federal Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which was enacted “to protect unborn children from assault and murder”. States that under federal law, anybody intentionally killing or attempting to kill an unborn child should “be punished... for intentionally killing or attempting to kill a human being”. The act also states that an unborn child is a “member of the species homo sapiens”.

2. Life begins at conception, so unborn babies are human beings with a right to life. Upon fertilization, a human individual is created with a unique genetic identity that remains unchanged throughout his or her life. This individual has a fundamental right to life, which must be protected. Alfred Bongiovanni, a Professor at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, writes: The standard medical texts have long taught that human life begins at conception. Jerome Lejune, a former Professor at the University of Descartes in Paris and the discoverer of the chromosome pattern for Down Syndrome, writes: Each individual has a very unique beginning, the moment of its conception. Landrum Shettles, a researcher at Columbia University and a pioneer in the field of in vitro fertilization, says: There is one fact that no one can deny; human beings begin at conception.

3. Abortion is the killing of a human being, which defies the word of God. The Bible does not draw a distinction between fetuses and babies: the Greek word brephos is used in the Bible to refer to both an unborn child and an infant. By the time a baby is conceived, he or she is recognized by God, as demonstrated in Jeremiah 1:5: “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee...” The Sixth Commandment of the Bible’s Old Testament, “Thou shalt not kill” (Exodus 20:13), applies to all human beings, including unborn babies. In the Hindu religion, the holy text Kaushitaki Upanishad states that abortion is an equivalent misdeed to killing one’s own parents. The BBC states that “Traditional Buddhism rejects abortion because it involves the deliberate destroying of a life”.

4. Abortions cause psychological damage. A 2008 peer-reviewed study published in the Scandinavian Journal of Public Health found that “Young adult women who undergo... abortion may be at increased risk for subsequent depression”. A peer-reviewed 2005 study published in BMC Medicine found that women who underwent an abortion had “significantly higher” anxiety scores on the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale up to five years after the pregnancy termination. A 2002 peer-reviewed study published by the Southern Medical Journal of more than 173,000 American women found that women who aborted were 154% more likely to commit suicide than women who carried to term. A 1996 study published in the British Medical Journal reported that the mean annual suicide rate amongst women who had an abortion was 34.7 per 100,000, compared with a mean rate of 11.3 per 100,000 in the general population of women. An Apr. 1998 Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology study of men whose partners had abortions found that 51.6% of the men reported regret, 45.2% felt sadness, and 25.8% experienced depression.

5. Abortions reduce the number of adoptable babies. Instead of having the option to abort, women should give their unwanted babies to people who cannot conceive. The percentage of infants given up for adoption in the United States declined from 9% of those born before 1973 to 1% of those born between 1996 and 2002. As a result of the lack of women putting their children up for adoption, the number of US infant adoptions dropped from about 90,000 in 1971 to 18,000 in 2007. Around 2.6 million American women were trying to adopt children as of 2002, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services.

6. Women should not be able to use abortion as a form of contraception. It is immoral to kill an unborn child for convenience. The Guttmacher Institute reported that half of all women having abortions every year have had at least one previous abortion, while 8.5% of abortions reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2010 were undergone by women who had three or more previous abortions. This suggests that many women are using abortion as a contraceptive method. Freakonomics co-author Steven Levitt, PhD, wrote that after abortion was legalized, “Conceptions rose by nearly 30 percent, but births actually fell by 6 percent, indicating that many women were using abortion as a method of birth control, a crude and drastic sort of insurance policy”.

7. If women become pregnant, they should accept the responsibility that comes with producing a child. People need to take responsibility for their actions and accept the consequences. Having sexual intercourse, even when contraceptive methods are used, carries with it the risk of a pregnancy. The unborn baby should not be punished for a mistake made by adults. If women are unprepared to care for their children, they should at least put them up for adoption.

8. Abortion promotes a culture in which human life is disposable. The legalization of abortion sends a message that human life has little value. Pope Francis condemned ‘“the throwaway culture’” in Jan. 2014, stating that “what is thrown away is not only food and dispensable objects, but often human beings themselves, who are discarded as ‘unnecessary’. For example, it is frightful even to think there are children, victims of abortion, who will never see the light of day...” House Representative Randy Hultgren (R-IL) wrote in Jan. 2014 that “When we tell one another that abortion is okay, we reinforce the idea that human lives are disposable, that we can throw away anything or anyone that inconveniences us”.

9. Allowing abortion conflicts with the unalienable right to life recognized by the Founding Fathers of the United States. The Declaration of Independence states that “All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. Abortion takes away from the unborn the unalienable right to life that the Founding Fathers intended for all human beings.

10. Abortion may lead to future medical problems for the mother. A June 2003 study published by the peer-reviewed International Journal of Epidemiology estimated that about 15% of first-trimester miscarriages are attributed to a prior history of induced abortion, and stated that “Induced abortion by vacuum aspiration is associated with an increased risk of first-trimester miscarriage in the subsequent pregnancy”. A 2013 Chinese study published in the peer-reviewed Indian Journal of Cancer found an association between breast cancer and a history of abortions. A Feb. 2014 study published in the peer-reviewed Cancer Causes and Control found that abortion “is significantly associated with an increased risk of breast cancer” and that “the risk of breast cancer increases as the number of [abortions] increases”.

CHURCH'S VIEW ABOUT ABORTION: The Roman Catholic Church has always condemned abortion as a grave evil. Especially the direct and purposeful taking of the life of the unborn child. Catholic Christians believe that all life is sacred from conception until natural death, and the taking of innocent human life, whether born or unborn, is morally wrong. The Catholic Church teaches, “Human life is sacred because from its beginning it involves the creative action of God and it remains forever in a special relationship with the Creator, who is its sole end. God alone is the Lord of life from its beginning until its end: no one can under any circumstance claim for himself the right directly to destroy an innocent human being”.

2.1. The Church Fathers: The Church Fathers’ writings show that they were against of abortion. Clement of Alexandria declared in his writing, “Christians do not in order to hide their fornication, take away human nature, which is generated from the providence of God, by hastening abortions and applying the drugs to destroy utterly the embryo and with it the love of man. Those who use drugs for abortion they offend God in destroying what he has shaped”.

Church Father Tertulian asserted, “For us, indeed, as homicide is forbidden, it is not lawful to destroy what is conceived in the womb while the blood is still being formed into a man. The mold in the womb may not to be destroyed. The offense is expressed as the killing of a potential human, an act which seems to be forbidden by the commandment, ‘You shall not kill’.”

The first explicit teaching is in the Didache, or Teaching of the Twelve Apostles. “You shall not kill. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not corrupt boys. You shall not fornicate. You shall not slay the child by abortions. These sins expressly named by the Ten Commandments. In the Kernal of the Didache, the two Ways, the Way of life was contrasted with the Way of Death. The later way was followed by sinners those who practice “medicine” and those who are “killers of the child, who abort the mold of God. So the offense described was killing what God had made, an offense heightened because it was mothers who had killed their own offspring.

St John Chrysostom preached against abortion as encouraged by married men engaged in intercourse with prostitutes, “Wherefore I beseech you, flee fornication…Why sow where the ground makes it its care to destroy the fruit?—where there are many efforts at abortion?—where there is murder before the birth? For even the harlot you do not let continue a mere harlot, but make her a murderess also. You see how drunkenness leads to prostitution, prostitution to adultery, adultery to murder; or rather to a something even worse than murder. For I have no name to give it, since it does not take off the thing born, but prevents its being born. Why then do thou abuse the gift of God, and fight with his laws, and follow after what is a curse as if a blessing, and make the chamber of procreation a chamber for murder, and arm the woman that was given for childbearing unto slaughter?”

So all the writers agreed that abortion was a violation of the love owed to one’s neighbor. Some saw it as a special failure of maternal love. Many saw it also as a failure to have reverence for the work of God the creator.

2.2. Vatican Council II: Gaudium et Spes, the pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, speaks of the exalted dignity of the human person and acknowledges the human being’s rights and duties as universal and inviolable “There is a growing awareness of the sublime dignity of human persons, who stand above all things and whose rights and duties are universal and inviolable”. It further stresses the need for respecting the human being, and especially his life, “Respect for the human person: everybody should look upon his or her neighbor (without any exception) as another self, bearing in mind especially their neighbor's life and the means needed for a dignified way of life”. It teaches categorically, “For God, the Lord of life, has conferred on men the surpassing ministry of safeguarding life in a manner which is worthy of man. Therefore from the moment of its conception life must be guarded with the greatest care while abortion and infanticide are unspeakable crimes.” Really Abortion is spoken of as infamy and supreme dishonor to the creator.

2.3. Teaching of Catechism of the Catholic Church: Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that, “Human life is sacred because from its beginning it involves the creative action of God and it remains forever in a special relationship with the Creator, who is its sole end. God alone is the Lord of life from its beginning until its end: no one can under any circumstance claim for himself the right directly to destroy an innocent human being” (2258). Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. “A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae”, “by the very commission of the offense”, and subject to the conditions provided by Canon Law. The Church does not thereby intend to restrict the scope of mercy. Rather, she makes clear the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable harm done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the parents and the whole of society (2272). From its conception, the child has the right to life. Direct abortion, that is, abortion willed as an end or as a means, is a “criminal” practice (GS 27 § 3), gravely contrary to the moral law. The Church imposes the canonical penalty of excommunication for this crime against human life (2322). Because it should be treated as a person from conception, the embryo must be defended in its integrity, cared for, and healed like every other human being (2323). Intentional euthanasia, whatever its forms or motives, is murder. It is gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and to the respect due to the living God, his Creator (2324).

2.4. What does the Canon Law say about abortion: The Catholic Church has long considered abortion to be not only a grave moral evil but also a crime punishable by canonical sanctions, “A person who actually procures an abortion incurs a latae sententiae excommunication” (1398). Here we see that to have abortion is strictly forbidden. If anybody procures an abortion that is also mortal sin at the same time is excommunication.

Teaching of Pope Francis: Pope Francis has spoken strongly against abortion several times. He said, abortion can never be condoned, even when the fetus is gravely sick or likely to die, and has urged doctors and priests to support families to carry such pregnancies to term. Abortion is never a solution even when the unborn child is suffering from pathological disorders, because children in the womb are “small patients” and medicine knows how to provide patient care. When prenatal testing shows there’s the possibility of the child having a pathology, “on a social level, the fear and hostility towards disability often lead to the choice of abortion, configuring it as a practice of ‘prevention’.”

“The Church’s teaching on this point is clear: human life is sacred and inviolable and the use of prenatal diagnosis for selective purposes should be discouraged with strength, because it is the expression of an inhuman eugenics mentality, which takes away the possibility of families welcoming, embracing and loving their weakest children”. But beyond what the Church teaches, the pontiff also said that using abortion as a “prevention” is always inadmissible, and that this is a “human problem, faith has nothing to do with it.” Improvising, he adds: “Is it legitimate to take out a human life to solve a problem? Is it permissible to contract a hitman to solve a problem? The answer is yours. This is the point, it is not about religion and it is a human thing. It is never lawful”!

Many children in the womb, as the pope noted, “can often be treated with extraordinary pharmacological, surgical and other interventions, capable of reducing that terrible gap between diagnostic and therapeutic possibilities, which for years has been one of the causes of abortion” and also abandonment of newly born children.

Francis said, “The medical profession is a mission, one vocation to life, and it is important that doctors are aware that they themselves are a gift for the families entrusted to them: doctors must be able to enter into a relationship, to take charge of the lives of others, be proactive in the face of pain, who are able to be reassuring, and who strive to always find solutions respectful of the dignity of every human life”.

Conclusion: The beginning of a new human life is a sacred moment, in which God's continuing creative power is especially evident. After all, parents cannot want this particular child. At best the wanted “a boy” or “a girl”. Only God wanted “me”. Hence a child is born in cooperation between man and God. The power to cooperate with God is bestowed on parents as they give new life to a child. This cooperation begins with conception and birth and is completed in the education of the child. God nourishes, loves and guides the new human life through its parents. They have a serious and joyful responsibility.All human beings are persons. The being in the womb is the fetus or zygote or embryo, child, one of the state of human life. Therefore killing the being is morally wrong and it has the right to life. The right to life means, here, the right of the innocent to life not to be killed. Pope Pius XII said, “Every human being, even a child in the mother’s womb, has the right to life directly from God and not from the parents or from any human activity. Hence there is no human authority, no science, no medical, eugenic, social, economic or moral ‘indication’ that can offer or produce a valid juridical title to a direct, deliberate disposal of an innocent life.”