He states, “Procured abortion is the deliberate and direct killing, by whatever means it is carried out, off human being in the initial phase of his or her existence, extending from conception to birth. ” He believes that many Americans try to justify the abortion by simply calling it something it is not. For example, the phrase “interruption of pregnancy” has been as a synonym for abortion. Pope John
Paul considers such “linguistic phenomenon” a ploy to ease one conscience when deciding to have an abortion. Abortion is murder, and there is no other way to classify it. The author considers that at the very moment of conception, a human life has formed. If this life is ended, for any reason at the direction of another human being, it is wrongful killing of an “innocent.. [and]… Weak… Unborn child… ” Which could never be justified. Pope John Paul II does not relieve anyone’s responsibility either. All who participate, encourage, and allow the facilitation of abortions are at fault and could be held accountable for murder.
Although he uses somewhat of a slippery slope argument here, he makes good use of ethical theories throughout the paper to strengthen his arguments. Pope John Paul makes use of all three Ethical Theories; Virtue, Duty, and Consequential Theory. The Virtue theory considers natural law in arguing a position. If an argument or position violates the natural law of man, for example committing murder, is wrong. The Author makes this exact argument. He states that murder is wrong, therefore, we should not murder. Abortion is murder, so therefore it is against natural law and is wrong.
He also uses the Duty Theory. The Duty Argument considers social responsibility and how people are held accountable for their actions. Pope John Paul II holds everyone accountable, including doctors who perform abortions, lawmakers who allow the law to exist, and fathers who abandon mothers leaving them in a position to choose abortion. The author believes that all these players are socially responsible for abortion, making them murderers too. In addition, he believes that people who appose his point of view use a consequential Argument Theory to justify their position.
The Consequential Theory compares the action to the action of a position. If the consequences are worse than the actions, then your position is justified. Pope John Paul the II believes that people who oppose his view justify abortion by protecting health and standard of living of the other family member. This is a very valid argument, and do believe that when it comes to abortion, there are justified cases. Although the Author makes a solid argument, I must disagree with this article. In my own person experience I have went through not only a spontaneous abortion, but several more after the birth of my daughter.
If it were not for the choice of abortion Ewing available to me I don’t know how I could have survived raising more than one child. When I had an abortion I made the decision. Once I told the father I was pregnant, they either left, or could not handle being a father. At the time I was in school and did not have support from my parents as well. So without this choice I don’t know where I would have turned. For this article to show that abortion is an unspeakable crime would mean that have broken the law. It was my choice, my body, and untimely my decision not to bring any more kids into a cruel world. As not able to take on the spoonbill of caring for more children. He uses a lot of generalizations in his argument. He says that abortion is murder, no matter what stage of the pregnancy. Therefore, if you end abortion you are committing murder. So if you don’t eat healthy and you have a miscarriage is that manslaughter. Where do we draw the line on these offenses? The way to draw the line is to consider continuing to give women choices, and continue to realize that such a young fetus is not a human. Although the fetus has a chance of becoming a human life, let’s not regulate an existing humans life by forcing to have children.
