KEY POINT! Like society, which is split over pro-life and pro-choice abortion positions, so too is the Christian Church. Not all Christians think the same thing, and so not all Christians agree or disagree with abortion.
Pope John Paul II of the Roman
Catholic Church said that abortion was 1.
2. Why do you think he says this? What evidence supports his argument?
The only exception to this
Position of the Catholic Church is when
The Church of England teaches that
abortion BUT, it also says that abortion can be justified if 1. 2. 3. Why do you think the Church of England allows abortion under these circumstances?
However, some Christians believe that
So they cant Because
MATCH UP THE KEY WORDS WITH THEIR
DEFINITIONS Adoption
British Abortion Law
When a prematurely born baby can
survive. The earliest premature baby to survive was born at 21 weeks into a pregnancy. Becoming the parent(s) of a child born of someone else.
The law of double effect
When fertilisation of a human ovum
occurs, Roman Catholics believe it receives its human soul.
Embryo
The development of the spinal cord,
which happens after 14 days.
Viability
An organism at any time before full
development, birth, or hatching.
Abortion
Abortion Act, 1967 made abortion
legal if certain conditions were met, and the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act, 1990, limited abortions to 24 weeks into a pregnancy.
Primitive streak
Ensoulment
The premature expulsion of the
foetus from the womb by medical means. Catholic belief that abortion is only allowed if the mothers life is at risk. This is the only circumstance in which they will accept abortion.