Abortion is when a woman's pregnancy is deliberately terminated before the unborn child is fully formed and therefore foetus dies.Christians believe that they were created by God and have a duty to care for all life and everything in the world. "Made in God's image and likeness" Genesis 1:27.
"Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception; abortion and infanticide are the most abominable of crimes" Statement from the Roman Catholic ChurchThe Roman Catholic Church strongly opposes abortion under every circumstance except when it is the inevitable result of a necessary treatment given to the mother. The Roman Catholic teaching that the foetus is a human being from the moment of conception, and that its rights to life are equal to that of the mother's, is based on two theories; Ensoulment: In the 13th century Thomas Aquinas argued that the male foetus becomes a human being at 40 days and the female at 90 days after conception. Quickening: This is the time that the baby first moves in the womb. It is supported by the experience of John the Baptist's mother Elizabeth, described in the Bible:When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.The Church of England and most other protestant churches agree with the RC church and Orthodox churches in principle but they agree that each case is special. Therefore while abortion is generally not accepted, especially as a method of birth control, it may be permitted in certain cases.
If there is a serious risk to the mother's life, if conception takes place as a result of rape and if there is a grave risk that the baby will be born handicapped.The Anglican ChurchAlthough the foetus is to be especially respected and protected none the less the life of the foetus is not absolutely sacrosanct if it endangers the life of the mother. This Church also allows abortion if the pregnancy will severely affect mental health of the mother.Some Christians like members of the Church of England agree with abortion under certain circumstances like if It stops the child growing up to be unwanted, if a woman was raped and became pregnant and if the mothers life is at risk.
Some Christians also believe in situation ethics (most loving thing) Bishop Joseph Fletcher. Others believe that abortion, although still wrong, that under some circumstances abortion is better than allowing the pregnancy to continue if it endangers the life of the mother. It might be better to kill the foetus and save the mother rather then them both dying. This is choosing the lesser of two evils.
Also the bible doesn't teach anything on abortion so then why is it wrong.Other Christians like Catholics would disagree arguing that an unborn child can't argue for itself yet, unborn babies have enormous potential (eg. They could become a great scientist that discovers a new cure for diseases like cancer). They are other alternatives to abortion e.g.
adoption. They could also talk about the 'Slippery slope' theory; when you abort the baby because it doesn't turn out how you wanted it to. Lots of women experience guilt after they abort an unborn child.EuthanasiaEuthanasia means 'easy death'. It's helping someone to die to ease suffering from a painful, debilitating or incurable illness.
It comes in four different forms; Active Euthanasia, passive euthanasia, voluntary euthanasia and involuntary euthanasia.Active Euthanasia is when someone ends another persons life by either giving them a lethal injection or an overdoes of medication etc. Passive Euthanasia is deliberately withdrawing something like a life support machine which would help the patient live longer. Voluntary euthanasia is when the patient has asked to be killed and is.
Involuntary euthanasia is when the patient is killed without giving their consent to it.It is illegal in the UK for a doctor to deliberately give a patient a dose of medicine that will kill them. They must carefully control the pain without killing the patient. Some countries like Holland and Australia have made euthanasia legal.'I sincerely believe that those who come after us will wonder why on earth we kept a human being alive against their will, when all the dignity, beauty and meaning of life had vanished; when any gain to anyone was clearly impossible and when we should have been punished by the state if we had kept an animal in similar conditions'.
