Page 42 - Christ and Culture Textbook

deformed children from being born; social abortion is used to ease economic pressure on a family;
ethical abortion is used in cases of rape or incest; and abortion on demand permits abortion for any or
no reason. Since there is no control over spontaneous abortion (which some say happens to about 30
percent of all fertilized eggs), that kind of abortion is eliminated from this discussion. We are concerned
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with elective abortion, particularly abortion on demand.

Most women abort for convenience of the parent or response to social pressures. A large number of
abortions are performed because women cannot face the social humiliation associated with being a
single mother. Abortion is seen as the only way to get out of trouble in the secular world. Still others
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abort because of marital unfaithfulness and gender dislike. In many cases women who perform such
abortions does not care about what God’s will is. Their will is what becomes most important than God’s
will.

When does life begin?
The question of when life begins has been pivotal to the discussion. Different points on the conception-
birth range have been chosen, with the added problem of variant medical definitions of “life” itself.
Some uphold that the fetus becomes a person at the moment of birth. There are good reasons for this
argument. This is a rather clear line of demarcation, indicating a new status, a new moment of
independent existence with individuation beginning with the snipping of the umbilical cord.

Another view point to the moment of “quickening”; another to the time when the circulatory system is
fully developed. Others say that the principle of life in the Old Testament is the “breath” of life in man.
Therefore, life is present when the lungs develop, and the fetus can breathe on its own.

The moment of conception has been seen by many groups to be the beginning of life, since all the
potentiality of personhood is then present. David and others speak of their conceptions as part of their
personal history. Psalm 139:11-16; Jeremiah 1:5, and many other passages clearly indicate that God is
involved with man’s history prior to his birth.

What we conceive the fetus to be determines the value we assign to it. There are those who say that the
embryo (the term usually used to refer to the product of conception during its first twelve weeks) is
nothing more than a blob of protoplasm.

These are emotive terms that greatly cloud the issue and represent an irresponsible approach to the
question. To refer to an embryo as a “blob of protoplasm” is to be guilty of a severe form of
reductionism. The parasite term is equally inaccurate, as parasites have an independent life cycle that
includes reproduction. The crucial concern here is that we can say with certainty that at any stage of
development the fetus is a potential life, a potential human being, with a high level of probability of
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becoming a human being if left to the normal course of its development.

11 Charles C. Ryrie, Biblical Answers to Tough Questions (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1991), 80.

12 S .W. Kunhipyop, Afriacan Christian Ethics (Hippo books publishing, 2008), 332.

13 Ibid.,86.

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