An abortive discussion

Okay, deep breath... against all better judgement I'm poking my nose into the hornets' nest of arguably the most sensitive and emotive of all subjects.

The Marie Stopes TV ad

I watched the Marie Stopes TV advert last night. Nothing much in itself - three different women late with their periods, and background piano music in a minor key. The only spoken words in the ad are: 'If you're late for your period, you could be pregnant. If you're pregnant and not sure what to do, Marie Stopes International can help.'

Nothing very controversial in that... except that of course we all know that the unspecified help that Marie Stopes clinics offer is primarily abortion - or termination of unwanted pregnancies if you prefer.

Confessions and apologies

I must here confess - and I do see it as a confession - that I've for a long time leant strongly towards the pro-life side of the debate, and that's still where my natural sympathies lie. This doesn't sit comfortably with my otherwise left-wing and liberal inclinations, but there it is. However, I'm not seeking to use this blog as a soapbox, or a trench from which to snipe at those who see things differently. I just want to explore and try to understand a bit better the issues around this highly complex and emotive subject, hoping if possible to generate more light than heat.

I do also realise that it's all too easy for me as a man to theorise about matters which will never directly affect me - I will never have to decide whether to have an abortion; I will never have to go through the difficulties of pregnancy and the pains of childbirth. So I apologise if I seem to be callous or self-righteous in treating very theoretically what are for many deeply personal and painful issues.

For me, the debate revolves around a number of questions, which I'll have to deal with in separate posts, starting with:

Is an embryo a human being?

The trouble is, science cannot provide us with a definitive answer to the question

Or to put it another way, when does an embryo become a human being? To me this is the crux of the whole matter. At some point between sperm fertilising egg and birth at about 40 weeks, we're dealing not with a clump of cells but a human being. But at what point, and how do we decide? Is it when the embryo develops recognisable features, or when it is able to feel pain, or when its brain has reached a certain stage of development? Is it when the baby becomes 'viable', i.e. would have a chance of survival outside the womb, which of course depends largely on the current state of medical technology? Or is an embryo actually a developing human being from the moment of conception?

The trouble is, science cannot provide us with a definitive answer to the question, and probably never will be able to. How we define what is and is not a human being- a person - may not even be a scientific question, but a sociological, cultural, or theological one. Yet we must decide, for the whole ethicality and morality of abortion centres on this.

In most cultures and ethical systems, deliberately killing a human being (except in war or capital punishment) is viewed as murder and therefore as wrong and unlawful. Therefore if an embryo is a human being at the time of an abortion, we have a problem, for it is then hard to see how termination is ethically distinct from infanticide. However, if the embryo is not truly human, the situation is ethically very different.

To pose it as a situational ethics question, to end the life of a baby after it has been born is (I believe) generally seen as unacceptable; but at what (if any) point before birth does it become acceptable, and on what scientific, moral or other grounds?

I think the answer to all these questions has to be that we honestly don't know. If we don't know, then my own view is that - for our own sake if no-one else's - we must err on the side of not committing what could be a grave moral offence. Others will have good reasons to disagree.

even if an embryo is not yet a person, it will one day become one

Perhaps the main difficulty for me is that even if an embryo is not yet a human being, not yet a person, if it survives it will certainly one day become one. What may only be an embryo today will before long be a baby, a child, an adult. And though there are many people I sometimes feel I could cheerfully murder, there aren't many people who I would seriously say should never have been born. Yet to opt for an abortion is effectively to say this; to make the decision that this person who would otherwise one day be a you or a me, a sibling or a friend, an Aunt Hilda or a Fred the fishmonger or whoever else, should not - will not - be. And I'm not convinced that I have, or anyone else has, the right to make such a decision.

This is my own view - if you see it differently, I'm not trying to tell you what to think.

Next post - whose rights are more important, and what are the psychological and physical impacts of abortion on the mother?