BIOETHICAL

QUESTIONS
 Learning Goals and Standards

1. Define the word “abortion”;

2. Discuss the impact of abortion to their life as a
Christian and as a citizen; and
3. Realize the importance and sacredness of each
and every form of life.
 Abortion

Abortion is a complex problem which can be studied

in the light of medical, legal, social, and moral
perspectives. It is a medical problem because,
normally it is the doctor who recommends or performs
it.
It affects the physician who is supposed to look after
the general wellbeing of his/her patient, and whose
concern is not only the latter’s disease but also the
latter’s health.
Abortion is a legal problem because it poses some
questions on the extent to which society and
lawmakers should bat around for the unborn child, for
the mother, for family life, and for the public control
of the medical profession.

It is a social problem because it involves broken

families, unwed mothers, rape victims, as well as the
issue of poverty, among others
 It is a moral problem because it deals with a human
act involving an incipient life, specifically with regard
to its nature and control.

The issue of abortion calls for the definition,

determination, and valuation of human life .
NOTIONS OF ABORTION

“abortion” comes from the Latin verbs aborior,

aboriri, and abortus which ,means “to set; to
disappear, to fail, or to perish by untimely birth”
Technically stands for the termination of pregnancy in
the first trimester of its existence.
The termination of pregnancy during the second
trimester is called a “miscarriage.”
The termination in the last trimester before reaching
the full term is dubbed as a “premature birth”
As regard its object, abortion is the interruption of
pregnancy.

The New Catholic Encyclopedia defines abortion as “

the termination of any pregnancy before the fetus has
gained viability, irrespective of the civil law of any
particular jurisdiction or the canonical implication of
the various surgical approaches; whether by separation
of the living fetus from the uterus (abortion) or the
dismembering or evisceration of the
fetus(embryotomy or craniatonomy)
 or the removal of the nonviable fetus from an extra
uterine site of gestation (termination of ectopic
pregnancy), or even by the prevention of implantation
of the embryo.
 KINDS OF ABORTION

Abortion is either spontaneous or induced.

Spontaneous abortion-refers to the premature
expulsion of the embryo brought about by nature, not
bay any outside agent. Thus the death of the embryo is
not provoked by any intentional act by the mother or
by any other person. It is involuntary and not willed
by any person. It just happens like in miscarriage.

Included to in spontaneous abortion is the stillbirth of

an embryo developed enough to live outside the uterus
but born dead
Induced abortion
involves the premature expulsion of the embryo by the
deliberate action undertaken by a person. It is the
destruction of the life of the embryo, the removal of
the embryo which is precipitated by some intentional
act of the pregnant woman.
Thus, it is voluntary and willed. It is provoked
somehow and brought about by artificial means.
Induced abortion is either direct or indirect.

It is direct when it is a voluntary, immediate expulsion

of the fetus from the uterus. The reason for removal is
that the pregnancy, addedto some pathological
condition from which the mother is suffering that
lessens her chances for survival.
 It is indirect when the fetus is expelled as a
secondary effect of a remedial treatment to a woman,
with the sole intention of alleviating her from a serious
pathological state that exists because of her specific
pregnancy state. There is no direct attack upon the
fetus.
METHODS OF ABORTION

There are various techniques by which abortion is

done. Some of these methods are used by nonmedical
personnel and for self induced abortion, while others
are medically accepted procedures practiced in
hospitals and clinics.
Self induced abortion includes the insertion of
catheters, wire hangers, umbrella ribs, and knitting
needles, the injection of soap solution; the utilization
of a douche of green soap and glycerin and a uterine
paste made up of soap, iodine, or potassium iodide
and aromatic substances; and the drinking of flavored
liquids like lead salts, kerosene, castor oil, and a
seemingly interminable list of purgatives and irritants.
Nowadays, there are four medically accepted methods
of abortion practiced in hospitals and clinics.
1. dilation and curettage
2. suction and curettage
3. hysterectomy
4. saline induction
INTEGRATION

Psalm 139:13-16 13 For you created my inmost

being; you knit me together in my mother’s
womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and
wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I
know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden
from you when I was made in the secret place, when
I was woven together in the depths of the
earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the
days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be
ASSESSMENT

1. What is the effect of abortion to the body

of the woman?
2. What is the psychological effect of
abortion for a mother?
3. Why do you think abortion is immoral?
REFERENCES:

• Catechism of the Catholic Church

• Christian Morality in Contemporary
Society by Esteban T. Salibay,Jr.
• Church Dogmatic by Karl Barth Vol. III
• New American Bible