Lecture 12 - Bioethics
ISLAM: Qur'an has injunctions against
killing children - practices in pre-Islamic Arabia.
Prophet's saying: 120 days after conception, "the angel
is sent and he breathes the soul into it".
Abortion definitely prohibited after 120 days.
BUDDHISM: Three things necessary for
conception - sperm, ovum and gandhabba.
Like matchstick, matchbox and striking of the match on the box.
With contact of gandhabba, the sperm and ovum fuse.
During life a person accumulates "past experience" or
samkhara. At death these turn into a form of energy "gandhabba".
This "karmic energy" can appear in a newly formed fetus
anywhere in the world.
New embryo is psychologically identical with the deceased person.
Life processes continue. No beginning or end.
Fetus is a person, belongs only to itself and is not the mother's
possession.
Christian viewpoint:
Ref: John Stott: "Issues facing
Christians today"
AUTHORITY: The Bible, the Church, Reason.
The Bible contains Creator's information for all creation.
Psalm 139:13->
For you created my inmost being;
You knit me together in my mother's womb...
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
Your eyes saw my unformed body.
Three truths:
1. Created (like potter), knit together (like weaver).
A divine work of creative skill.
2. Continuity. Psalmist looks back
on his ante-natal life as "me".
3. Communion. Relationship with God
established in the womb.
What makes a person?
Self-awareness? Monkeys have it.
Language? Dolphins have it. Babies don't.
Person is an entity whom God knows
and relates to.
Who is your neighbour? Good Samaritan.
Answer 'What is a person?' in similar way.
3 stages: (i) Recognition - right genotype?
(ii) Commitment and caring.
(iii) Encounter.
A potential person only?
Torrance: "the potentiality concerned is not that of becoming
something else but of becoming what it essentially is."
Other Bible passages:
Job 31:15. Did not he who made me in the womb make them?
Psalm 119:73.
Ecclesiastes 11:5.
Psalm 22:9,10.
Psalm 71:6.
Jeremiah 1:5. Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.
Isaiah 49:5. he who formed me in the womb to be his servant..
Isaiah 46:3,4 (by analogy).
Note personal continuity in all these.
Luke 1:41. Elizabeth's baby leaps in
her womb to salute Jesus.
The Apostles' Creed: Jesus - one person from conception through
to crucifixion and resurrection.
Zygote has unique genotype distinct
from parents.
Each human begins as one cell ->
adult with 30 million million cells. 45 generations of cell division
- 41 occur before birth.
Development of embryo.
3-3 1/2 weeks: tiny heart starts to
beat.
4 weeks: fetus is 6 mm long - can distinguish body parts.
6-7 weeks: brain function detectable.
8 weeks (when abortions start to be performed): all limbs apparent,
fingers, fingerprints and toes.
9-10 weeks: can suck its thumb.
13 weeks: responds to pain, noise, light; hiccups.
Beginning of 6th month: hair, eyelashes, nails. Baby can cry, grip,
punch and kick.
Bible speaks of God's care for the
defenceless -
unborn are the most defenceless.
Purpose of creation is to glorify God
- embryo is capable of becoming someone who will do this.
[An abortus a potential mirror of God's
glory?]
Abortion methods:
D&C: dilation and curettage.
Scrape the womb -> fetus cut in pieces.
Suction -> fetus torn in pieces.
Violent and bloody dismemberments.
12-16 weeks: Inject toxic (saline)
solution into amniotic sac. Fetus is poisoned, burned and killed,
then ejected.
Later: Hysterotomy - like a Caesarean
section - or hysterectomy.
Prostaglandin hormone use: premature
delivery occurs, often of a live baby.
RU486. Fertilised egg is rejected.
Complications.
Call induced abortion feticide?
[Many words associated with abortion are euphemisms]
Justified feticide? Compare justifiable homicide. e.g mother's life
at risk.
Child seriously handicapped?
Glanville Williams: like "...the
bitch which kills her mis-shapen puppies.."
Exceptions: Child without brain; incapable
of independent survival.
1. "Sanctity of life" not
the issue but "quality of life"?
Who determines acceptable "quality"?
Love gives quality.
2. Why not destroy the disabled after
birth?
Measure of society's degree of civilisation is by the way it cares
for the disabled.
3. Aborting the disabled amounts to
fallible mortals playing God.
In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF).
Normally 4 contributions to natural
procreation
o sperm
o egg
o fallopian tubes connecting ovaries to womb, where fusion occurs
o womb - where embryo develops
Any one of these may be defective.
Tubes may be repaired surgically or
use AIH.
Infertile sperm: use donated sperm and IVF (wife's egg), then embryo
transfer.
Wife infertile: use donated egg.
Both infertile: use donated embryo.
Womb damaged: use surrogate mother.
Possible Christian concerns.
1. IVF an intrusion into the process
of procreation. Whose baby is it?
2. IVF an intrusion into the bonds of marriage or parenthood. Sperm
or egg donation via sexual intercourse is adultery!
Children want to know their parentage.
3. IVF may involve intrusion into the integrity of the embryo. Use
spare ones for research?
[At 14 days embryo is invisible to naked eye].
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