Abortion

The basic argument behind abortion usually comes down to whether or not the zygote/embryo/fetus is a human being. Pro-life people insist life begins at conception. Pro-choice people insist human life begins at birth or at some far along point in the pregnancy. The difficulty for pro-choice people is creating some sort of dividing line between human and not human. Conception at least makes for a logical jump to personhood. There are other arguments in favor of abortion. One notable philosopher, Peter Singer, argues that life begins at conception, but there is nothing wrong about terminating the pregnancy. From a utilitarian perspective, by terminating the pregnancy, the baby doesn't lose much (it has virtually no cognitive ability) but the mother has potentially much to gain. Peter Singer goes on to use this argument to even justify infanticide! I have always been in the anti-abortion camp. It never made sense to me to have life begin anywhere but conception and killing an innocent human being seems to go against everything I believe in regardless of any utilitarian gain.

However, I came across this article the other day which discusses when life begins from a biblical perspective. It lays out a fairly convincing argument that, Biblically speaking, human life begins at first breath. Before the baby breathes, it is something less than human. After first breath it becomes a 'living soul.' I will summarize the basic ideas presented:

• Genesis says that Adam did not become a living soul until God breathed the breath of life into his nostrils.
• In the accounts of Jesus and Stephen, their souls departed their physical bodies when they breathed their last.
• When Ezekiel saw the army of dry bones regrow muscle and flesh they were not alive until breathe entered their bodies.
• The author goes on to say that just because a fetus is not a living soul does not necessarily justify abortion
• In addition this raises some interesting questions about embryonic stem cell research
  

After a little more searching I found another article. The author is some sort of Bible Scholar who advocates abortion. While he definitely shows some aggression towards anti-abortionists (he calls anyone who is against every type of abortion a fanatic) , he does make some interesting points. I recommend you take a look.

While I still have extreme moral concerns with abortion, these articles are at least causing me to think.