T
tparsons
Guest
These scenarios were posed to me by a Methodist friend and I found it a little difficult to answer. Below is an email he sent me. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
Peace Be With You!
Tony
Today’s question for discussion:
Using the 4 criteria for a Just War, could the same clear standards not also define (drumroll…………) a Just Abortion?
Bear with me here. Consider the most grievous and aggravated situation. A young girl of 13 is brutally gang-raped under threat of violence, and is injured in the process. She later learns she is pregnant, but doesn’t know which of the five perpetrators might be the sperm donor (I can’t consider him a “father” in any real sense.) She continues to suffer from internal bleeding, there is a chance that both mother and child may die. The mother is from a poverty, lives in the slums, no family, no income, no health insurance. No future for raising a child, even if both were healthy, but they’re not.
She appears in the emergency room, unconscious from blood loss. The only truly “pro-life” option is to abort the fetus to save the life of the mother. Both would die if they don’t perform the termination.
Would that not be a Just reason for an abortion? In my mind (and that of most doctors) it is. If the church disagrees in such an extreme case, I would like to see the arguments backing this thinking, if that is the case.
While I’m asking, does the new Pope take pretty much the same stand opposing the Iraq war that Pope JP did?
Thank you.
Peace Be With You!
Tony
Today’s question for discussion:
Using the 4 criteria for a Just War, could the same clear standards not also define (drumroll…………) a Just Abortion?
Bear with me here. Consider the most grievous and aggravated situation. A young girl of 13 is brutally gang-raped under threat of violence, and is injured in the process. She later learns she is pregnant, but doesn’t know which of the five perpetrators might be the sperm donor (I can’t consider him a “father” in any real sense.) She continues to suffer from internal bleeding, there is a chance that both mother and child may die. The mother is from a poverty, lives in the slums, no family, no income, no health insurance. No future for raising a child, even if both were healthy, but they’re not.
She appears in the emergency room, unconscious from blood loss. The only truly “pro-life” option is to abort the fetus to save the life of the mother. Both would die if they don’t perform the termination.
Would that not be a Just reason for an abortion? In my mind (and that of most doctors) it is. If the church disagrees in such an extreme case, I would like to see the arguments backing this thinking, if that is the case.
While I’m asking, does the new Pope take pretty much the same stand opposing the Iraq war that Pope JP did?