Comparing Secular Opinion Of Abortion With The Catholic Church
Abortion:
Abortion has been a really controversial topic for many years. Abortion by definition is the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy, most often performed during the first 28 weeks of pregnancy. With our advancing technology, abortion has become more and more popular as the years advance. There are people who are for the legalization of abortion and others who are against it. In this paper I will be comparing the secular viewpoint of abortion with the Catholic Church view, followed by my own opinion of the matter.
The secular (non-religious) part of our world is mostly against child abortion. The majority of people believe that you do not have to be catholic or a person of faith to have morals and know the difference between
what is right or wrong. Marco Rosaire Rossi in the edition of The Humanist asked this question “Is there really such a thing as a pro-life atheist?”
The late atheist author Christopher Hitchens, when asked in a January 2008 debate with Jay Wesley Richards whether he was opposed to abortion and was a member of the pro-life movement, replied:
“I’ve had a lot of quarrels with some of my fellow materialists and secularists on this point, but I think that if the concept ‘child’ means anything, the concept ‘unborn child’ can be said to mean something. All the discoveries of embryology and viability – which have been very considerable in the last generation or so – appear to confirm that opinion, which I think should be innate in everybody. It’s innate in the Hippocratic Oath, its instinct in anyone who’s ever watched a sonogram. So ‘yes’ is my answer to that.” (Hitchens, 2008)
Secular pro-lifers include seasoned atheists and agnostics, ex-Christians, conservatives, liberals, vegans, gays and lesbians, and even pro-lifers of faith, who understand the strength of secular arguments with secular audiences.
Abortion has been a really controversial topic for many years. Abortion by definition is the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy, most often performed during the first 28 weeks of pregnancy. With our advancing technology, abortion has become more and more popular as the years advance. There are people who are for the legalization of abortion and others who are against it. In this paper I will be comparing the secular viewpoint of abortion with the Catholic Church view, followed by my own opinion of the matter.
The secular (non-religious) part of our world is mostly against child abortion. The majority of people believe that you do not have to be catholic or a person of faith to have morals and know the difference between
what is right or wrong. Marco Rosaire Rossi in the edition of The Humanist asked this question “Is there really such a thing as a pro-life atheist?”
The late atheist author Christopher Hitchens, when asked in a January 2008 debate with Jay Wesley Richards whether he was opposed to abortion and was a member of the pro-life movement, replied:
“I’ve had a lot of quarrels with some of my fellow materialists and secularists on this point, but I think that if the concept ‘child’ means anything, the concept ‘unborn child’ can be said to mean something. All the discoveries of embryology and viability – which have been very considerable in the last generation or so – appear to confirm that opinion, which I think should be innate in everybody. It’s innate in the Hippocratic Oath, its instinct in anyone who’s ever watched a sonogram. So ‘yes’ is my answer to that.” (Hitchens, 2008)
Secular pro-lifers include seasoned atheists and agnostics, ex-Christians, conservatives, liberals, vegans, gays and lesbians, and even pro-lifers of faith, who understand the strength of secular arguments with secular audiences.