Objection 1: It seems that the country should legalise abortion for it is a human right and so should be recognised by society as a civil right.
Objection 2: Every human being is the master of his or her own life and should live as they want and do what they will. So every woman has the right to decide what grows inside her body and feeds on her blood
Objection 3: The decision to have an abortion is often tragic and painful for the mother, insofar as the decision to rid herself of the fruit of conception is not made for purely selfish reasons or out of convenience, but the embryo is an aggressor that attacks her own health or a decent standard of living for the other members of the family.
Objection 4: Etching the baby relieves and frees the woman and calms her down in adverse circumstances such as rape or when it is feared that the child to be born would live in conditions that it would be better if he or she were not born.
Objection 5: Further, the result of conception, at least up to a certain number of days, cannot yet be considered a personal human life.
On the contrary, It is said “You shall not kill” (Ex 20,13) and “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness” (Is 5, 20).
I answer that, every act tending directly to destroy human life in the womb, whether such destruction is intended as an end or only as a means to an end, is objectively wrong, regardless of how one feels about it. Procured abortion is the deliberate and direct killing of a human being, not yet born, but who will one day be a man is a man already. Actually, from the time that the ovum is fertilized, a life is begun which is neither that of the father nor the mother, but the life of a new human being with his own growth. It would never be made human if it were not human already. This truth that a human being is at stake is clouded by the use of ambiguous terminology, such as “interruption of pregnancy”, which hides the true nature of abortion and by speeches of “abortion rights” without describing what an abortion actually is.
Reply to Objection 1: The fundamental human right, the presupposition of every other right, is the right to life itself. This is true of life from the moment of conception until its natural end. Abortion, consequently, cannot be a human right. It is the very opposite. It is a deep wound in society.
Reply to Objection 2: That abortion is a women's right of choice over her body is a half-truth, because there are two hearts and two beats, not one. If a mother can kill her own child, what is left but for us to kill each other? It is degrading to women if the law would treat their children as property to be disposed of as one sees fit. We may bury our children, but we can never bury their memory.
Reply to Objection 3: No one more absolutely innocent could be imagined than the embryo who in no way could ever be considered an aggressor, let alone an unjust one! He or she is weak to the point of lacking that minimal form of defence. On the other hand, everyone who is for abortion, has already been born.
Reply to Objection 4: Abortion does not pass without a trace in terms of women’s health. It causes severe physiological and psychological damage to cancelled mothers, such as ectopic pregnancy, depression and suicidal behaviour, drug abuse, alcohol and terminal diseases. Legal or not, every abortion involves at least four victims: the unborn child, the mother, the father and the community.
Reply to Objection 5: The mere probability that a human person is involved would suffice to justify an absolutely clear prohibition of any intervention aimed at killing a human embryo. In any case, Even if empirical data cannot ascertain the presence of a spiritual soul, the results themselves of scientific research on the human embryo provide a valuable indication for discerning by the use of reason a personal presence at the moment of the first appearance of a human life.
Mgr. Edward Xuereb is Judicial Vicar in the Diocese of Gozo