Introducing Christian Ethics: A Short Guide to Making Moral Choices

by Scott B. Rae

The baby is actually a separate entity with an entirely separate genetic code, and in roughly half of the pregnancies, a different sex. From very early on in the pregnancy, the baby has its own circulatory and nervous systems. It is true that the baby is dependent on the mother’s body. But being dependent on the mother and being part of the mother are two different things. This rationale for abortion confuses the fetus being attached to the woman carrying it and being a part of the woman carrying it. It does not follow that just because the fetus is attached to its mother by an umbilical cord that the fetus is a part of her in a way that denies its own separate identity. Here’s something else to think about with this rationale. Only on the assumption that the fetus is not a person does this argument of “my body, my choice” make sense. That is, if the fetus is not a person, it makes sense for the mother’s right over her own body to take precedence. But if the fetus is a person, it makes no sense to insist that the mother’s choice should take priority over the fetus’s right to life, because life always takes precedence over the exercise of freedom when they conflict. Further, only by assuming that the fetus is not a person can a woman justify ending its life simply because she chooses to do so. Philosophers call this “begging the question,” that is, assuming your conclusion at the very start. This rationale assumes that the fetus is not a person, for if it is a person, the a...