With Catholic Bishops once more warning voters about
their "eternal salvation" (in connection with voting for pro-abortion
candidates) and a proposed new amendment to protect the "personhood"
of the unborn making its way toward the ballot in Colorado - it is
time once more to revisit the issue of abortion. |
Consider for a moment that those who insist a fetus
is a full human person are guilty of committing the genetic fallacy.
Antony Flew notes in Thinking About Thinking, "The genetic fallacy
consists in arguing that the antecedents of something must be the
same as their fulfillment. Or, that a fetus, even from the moment
of conception - must really be, because it is going to become - a
person." (pg.101) |
When one thinks about this seriously, it's bare bollocks.
It puts an essential biological parasite (inasmuch as it can't sustain
independent existence) on the same level as say….a fully formed nineteen-year
old fighting in Baghdad. It thereby also puts the death of the latter
person - who has formed hundreds of mature attachments, performed
thousands of duties, and created multiple art forms/crafts, on the
same level as eliminating an agglomeration of cells with a rudimentary
human shape but no personality, no conscious awareness that rises
to the level of a three-month old chimp. |
Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan wrote one of the most audacious
articles on abortion, which appeared in the April 22, 1990 issue of
Parade magazine. The authors, using sound science, attempted to steer
a midway path between the contentious extremes of the abortion minefield.
What they sought to determine is whether there was some point after
which NO abortion should ever be performed. |
They used as a threshold criterion the onset of
recognizable human thinking. As they noted:
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"In fact, this is a very conservative definition.
Regular brain waves are rarely found in fetuses. To make the criterion
still more stringent, to allow for precocious fetal development,
we might draw the line at six months. This amounts to prohibition
in the last trimester, except in cases of grave medical necessity.
It strikes a fair balance between the conflicting claims of freedom
and life." (Parade, pg. 7)
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Ramping up their case, the authors accurately note that
the greatest "abortionist" of all is not Man, but Nature. She aborts
with a frequency that boggles the mind, compared to human intervention
and artifice. Thus, totally purist anti-abortionists are left to defend
their position against the vicious vagaries of Mother Nature, while
they attempt to erect absolutist sanctions against poor women, or
those lacking access to proper birth control. |
Finally, in what can only be described as a coup-de-grace,
Sagan and Druyan note that the Catholic Church itself held that abortion
was allowable up to about the first three months of pregnancy - "according
to the Catholic Church's first and long standing collection of Canon
Law" - citing John Connery, S.J. a leading historian of the Church's
teaching on abortion. |
The authors notes: "it was not until 1869 that abortion
for any reason became grounds for excommunication." |
Interestingly, the "papal infallibility" doctrine was
first proclaimed in 1870. |
Which brings up the question: How will the Catholic
bishops - who so impetuously condemn pro-choice candidate voters to
Hell today- reconcile that with the Church's stance pre-1869?
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Inquiring minds really want to know. |
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