Why do we believe that abortion isn't murder?

Question

Billy D, your assumption of me is incorrect. In fact I recently masterbated myself and not considered a christian. Although it would probably do me good to become one. I am simply a woman sitting at her computer trying to understand things. I'm not trying to push my views on anyone.

Answer 1

I now make two assumptions of you: the first, you must not be a Christian, considering the Bible explicitly permits and even instructs how to abort "unholy babies"; and two, you must want every man who's ever masturbated and ejaculated to be tried for murder.

Answer 2

Fetus has no ability to live outside the mother's body so not child sacrifice.

Have you ever been pregnant? Forcing someone to be pregnant for any length of time is definitely cruel and unusual punishment. If you think pregnancy only effects you for 9 months you've obviously never given birth. I'm still recovering and my son is 15 months old.

So going along your lines of thinking, should I be charged with child abuse since I had gestational hypertension which caused my son to not grow in the last 2 weeks before birth? Not to mention the terrible stress he was under?

Actually to be honest, as the secondary victim of violent crime (my fiance was murdered in the first degree) I find your comparison of abortion to murder highly offensive. I hope your life is never touched by murder.

Answer 3

Diary of an Unborn Child

OCTOBER 5:

Today my life began. My parents do not know it yet, but it is I already. And I am to be a girl. I shall have blond hair and blue eyes. Just about everything is settled though, even the fact that I shall love flowers.

OCTOBER 19:

Some say that I am not a real person yet, that only my mother exists. But I am a real person, just as a small crumb of bread is yet truly bread. My mother is. And I am.

OCTOBER 23:

My mouth is just beginning to open now. Just think, in a year or so I shall be laughing and later talking. I know what my first word will be: MAMA.

OCTOBER 25:

My heart began to beat today all by itself. From now on it shall gently beat for the rest of my life without ever stopping to rest! And after many years it will tire. It will stop, and then I shall die.

NOVEMBER 2:

I am growing a bit every day. My arms and legs are beginning to take shape. But I have to wait a long time yet before those little legs will raise me to my mother’s arms, before these little arms will be able to gather flowers and embrace my father.

NOVEMBER 12:

Tiny fingers are beginning to form on my hands. Funny how small they are! I’ll be able to stroke my mother’s hair with them.

NOVEMBER 20:

It wasn’t until today that the doctor told mom that I am living here under her heart. Oh, how happy she must be! Are you happy, mom?

NOVEMBER 25:

My mom and dad are probably thinking about a name for me. But they don’t even know that I am a little girl. I want to be called Kathy. I am getting so big already.

DECEMBER 10:

My hair is growing. It is smooth and bright and shiny. I wonder what kind of hair mom has?

DECEMBER 13:

I am just about able to see. It is dark around me. When mom brings me into the world it will be full of sunshine and flowers. But what I want more than anything is to see my mom. How do you look, mom?

DECEMBER 24:

I wonder if mom hears the whispering of my heart? Some children come into the world a little sick. But my heart is strong and healthy. It beats so evenly: tup-tup, tup-tup. You’ll have a healthy little daughter, mom!

DECEMBER 28:

Today my mother killed me.

—Anonymous

Answer 4

For the same reason I don't consider menstruation or ejaculation murder.

Answer 5

Removing a fetus the size of a peanut is not murder.  Adoption agencies are overflowing and the horror stories that come out of foster care are too numerous to mention.

This planet is overflowing with little miracles so if someone wants to take the responsibility to terminate a pregnancy they are not prepared for I won't lose sleep over it.  It's not the nine month inconvenience that's the problem.  It's the drain on the individual and society caused by unwanted and uncared for children that is the issue.

Answer 6

Again, it all comes down to defining "life" and pinpointing when it begins.

Obviously our definitions disagree.

And sometimes a woman can't carry a child to term - it would be detrimental, perhaps even fatal.

Take me, for example.  I suppose that, if I was going to be hit by preeclampsia, it's a good thing it hit later in the pregnancy.  If it'd hit in the very early stages they probably would've had to abort to save my life.

Answer 7

If you don't know the difference between a fetus and a child, then we need to have a birds and bees talk.

Answer 8

the fact that a child is sustaining on its own, the baby in the mother needs the mother to live, to feed off, to survive,

it coudl not survive without her making it not a individual socially accepted human being

a child does not need the mother, it can survive without her making it t a sustainable socially accepted individual human being

adoption is not a solution, it is a temporary option for SOME of these babies, not all, there is no other solution that is workable and fair for eveyrone

Answer 9

Abortion=murder. No doubts about it. It's amazing actually. If you were to murder a pregnant woman, and the baby dies, or if you cause a pregnant woman's baby to die, you will be charged with murder. However, if you go to a clinic and have a doctor kill it, it is called "a woman's right to choose". Anybody see something wrong with that picture?

KiraJenLove: Great answer!

Answer 10

The bible says clearly that life doesn't start when the sperm hits the egg, but rather when God breaths that first breath into the lungs of a Newborn. So, fetuses aren't babies, biblically speaking.  

Answer 11

I believe abortion IS murder.

The only reason why some people say it's not is because they want to remove their conscience from the act so they don't feel guilty. No one wants to be called a "murderer", but they are. They are just selfish and immature and only think of themselves and THEIR desires, THEIR needs.  

Answer 12

"What is the difference between abortion and child sacrifice? Except the God we are worshiping is the God of Self, and the God of Convenience."

Doesn't the fact that you people have to lie so much to support your position tell you something about the quality of that position? It should.

It's amazing how often I have to say that to you antiabortion rights nuts, and to the creationists. Sometimes I suspect they passed out Bibles that held a typo, reading "Thou Shalt Bear False Witness Against Thy Neighbor".

Answer 13

Because it doesn't appear to be murder.  The only arguments the anti-abortionists have are appeals to emotion, "The life of a child" for instance.

What dishonest rot, we're talking about a bunch of self replicating cells with no knowledge memory or experience.

Answer 14

It is very simple.  A "child" is defined as a human being that has been born into the world - that is has passed thru the birth canal and is able to breath on its own.  To kill a child is murder (a legal term by the way).  An unborn fetus is not yet considered a child.  Abortion is legal and is not defined as murder.  

Now if you are going to take up the position that killing a fetus or embryo is murder because it is the taking of a potential human life (one that is not a person yet but could be) then aren't you going to have to arrest and convict any woman who denies the advances of a man wanting to have s*x, since she is then doing the same thing - denying the potential life of a person - who might have been conceived if the couple had had s*x?   see what a semantic mess your are creating for yourself?

Answer 15

Contraception, as a social practice, goes back to the earliest days of recorded history. When Christianity entered the world, the followers of Christ were warned against conforming to the pagan society in which they lived. They were given four successive precepts on sexual morality: “You shall not use magic. You shall not use drugs. You shall not procure abortion. You shall not destroy an unborn child” (Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, A.D. 80).

Records from the Roman Empire tell us that the people would first try some magical rites or sorcery to avoid conception. If this failed, they would use one of the 17 known contraceptive medical drugs. If a woman still conceived, she would try to abort. And if even this failed, there was always the Roman law which permitted infanticide.

The fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century after Christ is only the best-known example of what happens to every contraceptive culture. It resorts to abortion and infanticide and ends up destroying itself as a society.

more at http://www.therealpresence.org/archives/...

We know what the word “sacrifice” means. It means the surrender of something precious to the god in whom a person believes. Sacrifices have been part of world religions since the dawn of recorded history. Without exception, the deities of all the religions of the ancient world demanded sacrifices in their honor. The Egyptians and Babylonians, the Greeks and Romans, the deities of pre-Christian India and of the continent of Africa required that their adherents offer what we call sacrifices in their name.

What is less well known, however, is that these religions also required the sacrifice of children as an oblation and even as a condition, for obtaining blessings from the gods. We read in the Office of Readings for today’s Divine Office that the Lord spoke through the prophet Jeremiah, charging the Jews of imitating the pagans in their practice of child homicide. Said the Lord, “They have built high places for Baal to immolate their sons in fire as holocausts to Baal: such a thing as I neither commanded nor spoke of, nor did it ever enter my mind.”

As we read statements like foregoing, we ask ourselves: how could human beings be so deluded as to seriously believe that their gods required human sacrifice as a condition for receiving divine favors? The key word is “deluded.” Thirty years of teaching comparative religion has taught me that there is no limit to the irrational, indeed insane, practices that religious mythology will not put into practice as a mandate from the deities in whom they believed. Thus we read in the history of the Aztecs in South America before Columbus that they would kill up to ten thousand children on a major feastday in honor of one of their gods. Although seldom mentioned, infanticide as a religious ritual was practiced in India before its colonization by Great Britain.

more at http://www.therealpresence.org/archives/...

The Catholic Church’s teaching on abortion is deeper than most people realize. For almost twenty centuries, the Catholic Church has taught that the direct killing of an unborn child is a grave violation of the rights of God because Human life is sacred.

This is the heart of my thesis and the foundation of everything else I hope to share with you. Abortion is above all, and beyond all, a crime against God. Why? Because human life is sacred. It belongs to Him, and only He has a right to determine how long mortal human life is to remain alive, and when the life of a human being on earth may cease.

Other values of Human Life

There are many fine things we can say about human life, and all of them are true:

Human life is marvelous. It stands at the peak of all visible organisms around us.

Human life is superior to the plants and flowers, higher than the birds of the air and the fishes of the sea.

Human life is more perfect in its function and complexity than even the highest kind of animal known to scientific zoology.

Human life is precious, and those who possess it cherish their possession above everything else they own, as the medical and health professions so clearly and expensively testify.

On this level, human life is treasured. In fact, until recently the laws of all civilized nations respected and protected human life and punished convicted murderers accordingly.

more at http://www.therealpresence.org/archives/...

Index of articles here:http://www.therealpresence.org/archives/...

Answer 16

A fetus is not a baby the way egg mayonnaise is not Chicken Supreme.

You need to change your optician.

Answer 17

A zygote is not a child, just like you are not an intellectual.

Both have the potential, but simply aren't.

Answer 18

There are 6+ billion people in the world. Everything else is given value = to its rarity. going by that, human life is worthless. That is a a personal answer, I cant give an accurate one for everyone.

Another thought I have is that babies die in the womb, and at birth often enough. A serious flaw in the whole; love of god, thing. We arent doing anything nature doesn't do on its own.

Ethically speaking there is a point after which an abortion is murder. Doctors have set down a line after which a fetus is a child. while we develop in the womb we go through all the stages of evolution. An essential process to development. This is where we get the primal, mammal and higher brain functions. Its also why people are sometimes born with webbed fingers or tails. They are traits from our reptile and ape ancestry that pop up now and then. During those early stages the fetus is not really human, let alone being a person. As for the potential human life being lost, there are plenty of us around already.

If I offend, too bad. I tell it like I see it.

Answer 19

When does the "life" of a child begin?

I bet you say - At conception

I say - After the first trimester

Answer 20

Because it's only "a clump of cells".  Oh, unless it's wanted.  Then, it is miraculously transformed into "a baby"!

Answer 21

When a person dies, the law says that a death certificate needs to be issued.  I know of no jurisdiction anywhere that recognizes a fetus as a person and issues a death certificate.  

Without a death certificate stating Cause of Death: Homicide, there is no murder.  AND without a birth certificate first being issued, a death certificate is not issued.  

So, there you have your explanation.

Answer 22

For a number of reasons abortion would not meet the same criteria. First, it is not an independent life form. It can only exist as a parasite inside another. As such the host should have some say in their willingness to be a host. Second, is the question of personhood. In most philosophical discussion this involves a level of sentience and consciousness to distinguish humans and animals. Since most abortions occur in the first trimester they occur before the embryo has the brain development required for sentience. Even religiously there are different interpretations about when ensoulment or personhood begins. Some say not until the first breath is taken so there are a variety of beliefs to consider. I think abortion is a complicated choice but should remain an individual one. When you are dealing with a situation where the existence of one is dependent on the use of another's body you can't have equal rights. Its not possible. Thus, you are talking about giving one more rights than another. I side with the sentient being whose life is greatly impacted and may have many many variables we don't know in play in making the decision. Their future, their ability to care for, other children they are raising, the relationship they are in, health considerations, etc.... I would feel extremely uncomfortable removing this choice and making it the government's call or choice. This said some states are treating homicides that result in the death of a fetus in utero as a double homicide situation. I think this is meant as emotional compensation for the victims left behind.

The interpretation of ensoulment with first breath comes from Genesis where it states that God breathed life into Adam and it was not until he took his first breath that Adam had life. "Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being." (Genesis 2:7). Clearly, Adam had no living existence until that first breath.

At various times Catholic position on abortion or ensoulment held that it occurred only at the quickening or when one felt the fetus move on its own for the first time. Some other religious views that hold abortion at least in the first trimester is a matter of free will or choice not prohibited by their beliefs. Not to mention that its questionable to hold nonreligious people to your own religious views on this issue since the existence of souls or the validity of any one religious view can't be definitively proven but is a matter of free will, conscience, and faith.

http://www.betham.org/sermons/briskin030...

Answer 23

If anyone truly felt that way, then they would run down to the nearest fertility clinic and volunteer to carry as many of the fertilized eggs that get thrown away every day.

I agree that their needs to be limits on what stage abortion should be legal. Can we agree that fertilization is not a human life?

Answer 24

Some people don't want to deal with the responsibility, the life changes, and the financial burden. I do believe abortion is murder, I am 100% against it because that is a life inside the womb.

Tahuti I didn't know that. Very interesting.

Answer 25

Abortion is done thoughtlessly and for the convenience of the woman, seldom with consideration for other concerned parties involved.

Child sacrifice is generally associated with the good of the society.

Abortion is targeted at minorities - blacks especially.

Child sacrifice doesn't have a target group as it was not instituted by a flaming racist.

Interesting film that should see:

http://prolifetraining.com/WMV/Abortion-...

Answer 26

These words such as "murder" have legal definitions. It is not defined as murder, so don't use that word unless you want to look like a fool who doesn't own a dictionary.

Call it whatever else you want. A sin. An abomination. You have the right to those opinions, but not the right to force your opinions on everyone else.

Answer 27

According to the Bible (which Christians like to quote so much) in Leviticus 17:11 & 14 "The life of every creature is its blood."  Since the blood doesn't flow until the 22 day when the heart starts beating, the earliest that life technically could occur wouldn’t be until then.

And in Job 33:4 it says that "the spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life."  Sorry but a baby doesn't breathe until it is delivered.

Besides, the definition of something that needs to feed off of another to survive is a parasite.