Abortion: The Moral Issues

By Edward Batchelor Jr.

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0829806121
• ISBN13: 9780829806120
• Release Date: November 1982
• Publisher: Pilgrim Pr
• Length: 246 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Meditations on a difficult issue

No contemporary issue divides Americans more profoundly that the problem of abortion and its regulation. Although the debate has raged for more than four decades and a national consensus consistently favors choice, tempers have not cooled on either side of the argument. People who favor keeping abortion legal are called "murderers" by their opponents, while the latter are described as reactionary neanderthals insensitive to the sufferings of the already born. Two decades ago, Batchelor, a chaplain and lecturer at Brooklyn College, who performed a similar service with his book "Homosexulaity and Ethics," gathered together essays on abortion by 20 theologians and ethicists (such as Karl Barth, Margaret Mead and Paul Ramsey) in the modest hope of elevating the level of argument. What is emphasized is what we already know from experience, that there are no fast and simple answers. Among the issues considered by the contributors is whether abortion is a religious matter at all. If is is, how can the religious ethicist clarify the moral questions? Is preserving and protecting innocent human life an absolute value? Are the rights of the mother or the embryo to be foremost? Is an unborn child a human being with full rights? If so, at what point in its development does it become fully human? What is the proper relationship between religious, judicial and legislative institutions in public-policy decision-making? Although not all questions can be answered to everyone's satisfaction, the atmosphere of calm reasoning that pervades theses essays is helpful in itself. For example, while it remains difficult to accept the Vatican's rigid stand against abortion, after considering the arguments of the Jesuits and other Roman Catholic supporters of that position here, it is somewhat easier to understand the reasoning and the history behind it. Similarly, as a strong supporter of the pro-choice position, I found it helpful to to be forced to think about the possibility that some of the banners employed by those who favor legal termination, such as the slogan, "A Woman Has A Right To Her Own Body," oversimplify. While having the effect of drawing attention to past and present abuses of women's rights, such a formulation begs important questions, such as whether the fetus is part of the mother's body, whether authority over one's body is absolute, whether the father has rights, and so on. This collection also provides a fruitful reminder of how extensive the areas of consensus are in this debate. Most people, pro- or anti-, would agree that in most cases abortion is tragic and undesirable, and so all sides should be able to come together in support of policies that overcome the personal and social causes of abortion, although to do this will require some abortion opponents to alter their position on the related subject of contraception. In all, this source book intended to help readers to think more clearly on this deeply divisive issue is as relevant and enligh