Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................1
Conflicting Viewpoints..................................................................................................................2
The Ethical Decision......................................................................................................................5
Conclusion......................................................................................................................................5
Bibliography...................................................................................................................................8
Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to communicate the author’s bioethical position on a chosen
topic. The bioethical topic chosen for this paper is the topic of abortion. The author will be
discussing the topic of abortion from the viewpoint of a Christian, who believes that abortion is
wrong in the eyes of God and according to the Bible. This is a debate that has gone on for
numerous years. Rae has this to say about the topic:
On January 20, 1973, the United States Supreme Court decided the landmark Roe v.
Wade case that legalized abortion. For pro-choice advocates, the decision amounted to
the emancipation of women from having to carry unwanted pregnancies to term. For pro-
life supporters, on the other hand, the decision was tantamount to an assault on the most
vulnerable segment of society, the unborn. Since that decision, the abortion debate has
intensified, and it shows no signs of being resolved. It is still the debate that defines the
current cultural conflict in America and will likely remain so in the foreseeable future.1
Whether or not a woman has the right to abort the unborn child has always been one of
the primary focal points of the abortion/anti-abortion conflict. Believing that a woman’s choice
to abort the unborn child because it doesn’t have a voice yet is the world’s viewpoint. The pro-
abortion side debates that the fetus is not human yet (up until a certain term at least), and the
anti-abortion side argues that from the moment of conception the fetus is human and is one of
God’s children. The standpoint of this article is that the viewpoint of pro-abortionists is
murderous and is nothing more than taking the life of a defenseless child. Murder is looked at as
a defiance of God’s commands. Scripture tells us that Christ expects us to look after one another
(Matt 24:44-45)2. Then not only does Scripture tell us that, but it also speaks of how precious
children are and that they are a gift and a heritage from God (Ps 127:3). So, if children are
1 Scott B Rae,DMoral Choices: An Introduction To Ethics, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI:
Zondervan, 2009), 119.
2 Unless otherwise noted, all biblical passages referenced employ theDEnglish Standard
VersionD(Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2008).
1
precious and we are to look out for one another, according to Scripture, how can we even begin
to believe that it is acceptable to abort children in the womb?
Conflicting Viewpoints
Despite the world at large growing in the ideal that abortion is acceptable, Christianity as
a whole, still believes that abortion is wrong and un-Biblical. Murder is clearly spoken against in
the Scriptures. In the middle of the Ten Commandments, God issues the decree that, “You shall
not murder. (Exo 20:13)” It is the sixth commandment given to the Children of Israel in the Book
of Exodus. Murder has never been something that was acceptable as a Christian. From the
beginning, when Cain murdered his brother Abel (Gen 4:8), God has continually told His people
that murder is wrong. Christians know that murder is wrong and that abortion is wrong.
Unfortunately, Christianity sometimes forces people in unfortunate circumstances to fall into the
temptation of abortion as a final result. VanDrunen states:
It is often much easier to take a pro-life stance in theory than it is to live consistently with
the theory. Situations that make abortion a temptation are not merely trials for the
expectant mothers (and fathers), however, but trials for the church at large. These
situations beckon the church to respond with the love that ought to characterize it and to
set it apart from the world. Some Christians become pregnant out of wedlock, and in such
cases the church ought to be eager to forgive and restore the sinner who repents, in order
to avoid driving such people to abortion out of a sense of shame or a hope to conceal their
sins. Some Christians become pregnant through rape, and the church ought to show
abundant compassion to such women who have suffered a horrible and violent crime, and
who may be inclined to abort in order to wipe away a constant reminder of a terrifying
event. Other Christians face pregnancy in the face of overwhelming financial hardship or
with the prospect of bearing severely handicapped children who will be unable to enjoy a
normal life and whose care will place a heavy burden on the parents. In all such
circumstances the church’s obligation is to exhibit the kind of merciful and self-
sacrificing love that Christ showed to her.3
3 David VanDrunen,DBioethics And The Christian Life: A Guide To Making Difficult
DecisionsD(Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2009), 165.
2
Christianity sometimes misses the mark on how to care for its own. It holds people who
are already part of the “flock” to a different level of accountability than non-believers or the
newer members. While this isn’t necessarily wrong (a Christian, following God’s Word should
have a better grasp of right and wrong according to the Bible and know to stay away from
temptation), we are all human and have a tendency to make errors from time to time. The church
should then in turn help those who have fallen instead of kicking them while they are down.
As mentioned earlier one of the primary arguments of the pro-abortion movement is that
the fetus/embryo is not a life or does not have the right to life. Boonin, a defender of the pro-
abortion movement has this to say:
The first claim needed to sustain the rights-based argument against abortion maintains
that the (typical) human fetus has a right to life.
Perhaps the most straightforward relation between you or me on the one hand and
every human fetus from conception onward on the other is this: All are living members
of the same species, homo sapiens. A human fetus, after all, is simply a human being at a
very early stage in his or her development. A defender of abortion, of course, could
reject this characterization of the human fetus. The fetus, it might be said, is not yet an
individual, living organism, or is not yet a member of the human species. Perhaps it is
only a potential human being.4
This statement correlates with what has been spoken of already, that the fetus is not yet
considered a human being. Boonin goes on to defend other areas of the abortion argument as
well, but this is the singular point we shall use for this discussion.
On the other side of the discussion, we see that anti-abortionists feel that the moment an
embryo/fetus is conceived, it is a human being, a life, and a person worthy of having a life.
Kaczor said, “the human embryo is a whole, complete organism, a living individual human being
whose cells work together in a coordinated effort of self-development towards maturity. If all
human beings are persons, then the human embryo is a person.”5 According to this argument, it
4 David Boonin, A Defense of Abortion (Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and Public
Policy: Cambridge University Press, 2002.), 20.
5 Christopher Kaczor, The Ethics Of Abortion: Women's Rights, Human Life, And The Question Of Justice
(New York: Routledge, 2011), 105.
3
is definitive that the embryo, from the moment of conception, is a person and therefore has rights
just like any other person.
To think that only the US is seeing abortion as a mainstream idea would be naive. In her
article on the Fight Abortion, Not Women movement, Michele Rivkin-Fish said this:
Abortion became common during the Soviet era due to a series of ideological
contradictions and pragmatic necessity. From the inception of the Soviet Union
Bolshevik leaders endorsed the socialist model of women's emancipation that defined
women as equals to men in the public sphere. They opened up higher education and
voting rights to women and expected women to engage in full-time labour. They made
abortion available on demand to facilitate women's participation in the labour force.6
We see that even in Russia abortion is an issue. The same can be said of multiple other countries.
It is not exclusive to the US nor its territories. Abortion is worldwide and it is wrong no matter
the location. Abortion is a blight on societies everywhere and must be combatted with
knowledge and morality.
The Ethical Decision
While there are moments that cause one to pause and work through the ethical dilemma,
abortion should not be one of those moments. Jones says this:
One of the liabilities of an ethic that fosters a strong commitment to duty and at the same
time posits multiple universal norms such as the Ten Commandments is that of a
perplexed conscience when in extreme circumstances the norms make conflicting
demands—as in the obligation to preserve life and the obligation to speak truth.7
While conflicting demands as this passage speaks of might arise in a moment when one is
having to choose whether or not to lie to save another person or to take one person’s life in order
to save another, the choice on whether or not to take the life of an unborn child should not come
with a lingering decision. This decision should be quick and exact. The Scriptures used so far in
6 Michele Rivkin-Fish, "‘Fight Abortion, Not Women’",DAnthropological Journal Of European
CulturesD27, no. 2 (2018): 22-44, doi:10.3167/ajec.2018.270203.
7 David Clyde Jones,DBiblical Christian EthicsD(Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books, 1994), 125.
4
this paper have clearly stated that to murder is wrong and that children are a treasure. Abortion is
not a moral decision, it is a crime agains humanity. Killing an unborn child should be considered
the same as killing a grown man or woman. Murder is murder, regardless of the reasoning and
age of the victim.
Conclusion
As a Christian, and as someone who was adopted, I believe very strongly against
abortion. Not only because of my own history, but because of the morals and ethics I am guided
by through God’s Word. The Bible shows us that there were times when children in the womb
were already being moved on by the Spirit (Luke 1:15). In another verse we see where John the
Baptist leapt inside his mother’s womb when coming close to his cousin Jesus (Luke 1:41).
Jeremiah writes that God said, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you
were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” We are shown that God
was working in the life of the child before his birth even. If God is able to begin using children
before they are even born, how can we justify taking the life of a child while it is still in the
womb? The child in the womb, even though it is not completely formed, is a person. This person
that is still growing and forming is designed by God. David said in Psalms 139:13-16, “For you
formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am
fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My
frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths
of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of
them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” David saw the
beauty in the fact that God had His hand in the creation process of the baby in the womb. He
spoke of his unformed substance and how God saw him still. So, David was praising God for
5
being with him during the entire embryonic cycle and even before. God made man and woman to
procreate the earth and make more humans that could worship and serve Him. This process is
interrupted and defiled when the life of a child is taken before it is born. The world needs to
realize that it is murdering children before they are even given an opportunity to be a part of the
world that God created for them. It would be unthinkable to walk down the street and pick out a
child and just turn around and murder it, but that is what these clinics are doing every day.
Abortion is a scourge and the only way to stop it is to fight it. May God give us the wisdom to
open the eyes of those that perform it, request it, and support it. May we find a way to bring this
evil practice to an end. I am a product of a person who did not choose to abort their unborn child,
even though they could not care for it. How many lives have been stopped from creating,
helping, inventing, and living because of the choice to have an abortion?
6
Bibliography
Boonin, David.DA Defense Of Abortion. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Jones, David Clyde.DBiblical Christian Ethics. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books, 1994.
Kaczor, Christopher. The Ethics Of Abortion: Women's Rights, Human Life, And The Question
Of Justice. New York: Routledge, 2011.
Rae, Scott B. Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics. 3rd ed. Grand Rapids, Mich.:
Zondervan, 2009.
Rivkin-Fish, Michele. "‘Fight Abortion, Not Women’". Anthropological Journal Of European
Cultures 27, no. 2 (2018): 22-44. doi:10.3167/ajec.2018.270203.
VanDrunen, David.DBioethics And The Christian Life: A Guide To Making Difficult Decisions.
Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2009.
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