Abortion : a comparative study

Abstract

Although this thesis is written from a Catholic point of view, (the writer would have been hard pressed to deal honestly with the issue of abortion from any view point other than the Catholic one which he in fact holds), it is nevertheless to be hoped that the treatment of the subject is sufficiently general so that it will be of some interest to anyone concerned about abortion, regardless of his particular religious belief or lack of one. Ultimately one comes back to that central question: what do you make of the unborn child? Is the foetus an inanimate lump of tissue? Or is it a person? The law can have nothing to say about what parents and doctors choose to do with inanimate tissue for the benefit of the pregnant woman; but the law cannot afford to tolerate any violation of a human person’s right to life.