ABSTRACT
PIP: This paper reviews the book "A Brief, Liberal, Catholic Defense of Abortion", by Daniel A. Dombrowski and Robert Deltete. In this book, the authors argue that the Catholic tradition on abortion is very different from the present teaching of the Catholic Church. The issue of abortion is explored in the book through two different philosophies and two major Catholic theologians. The two philosophies are the perversity of sex (abortion distorts sex) and the ontological (the fetus as a person) philosophies. Saint Augustine primarily identified with the perversity of sex and viewed early and late stages of abortion as evil, because it destroys the conceptus, which is the only justification for sex and because human life is present--after sensation and quickening occur. On the other hand, Saint Thomas Aquinas with the ontological approach was less interested in abortion, rather developed hylomorphism. He stated that there is no human life in the womb until the 5th or 6th month, but rather a cluster of cells; thus God cannot infuse a soul into a small cluster of cells since body and soul belong together. The authors believe that this book is a model of reasoned discourse about abortion issues and is proves to be beneficial to a Catholic as well as any thoughtful person.^ieng
Subject(s)
Abortion, Induced , Catholicism , Legislation as Topic , Christianity , Family Planning Services , ReligionABSTRACT
PIP: The US has arrived at the correct legal status for induced abortion by permitting it on constitutional grounds within limits. In addition, the general consensus among American Catholics is in favor of abortion rights while disapproving of abortion and wishing to discourage it. Concerns about the morality of abortion, however, arise out of our uncertainty about the personhood of a fetus before birth or before viability. Early church leaders taught that a fetus did not obtain personhood until it acquired a human form, and the Catholic church did not baptize aborted fetuses without human shape or hold formal funeral services for dead fetuses. While official church teaching is adamant about the immorality of abortion, official church teaching has changed in the past in regard to the salvation of non-Catholics, slavery, inquisitions and torture, ecumenism, worship in the vernacular, and divorce and remarriage. No one is forced to have an abortion in the US because the legal right exists, and Catholics are more likely to heed Church teachings that do not seek legal force and punishment though "infallible" pronouncements and insensitive condemnation of women. If the Catholic church expects compassion for its wrong decisions in the past, then it should extend compassion to women in difficult situations.^ieng
