| IS
ABORTION FATAL?
Mavis Mathews
When
the body dies, it is commonly believed that the
soul is able to separate itself out and withdraw
. If that is so, if a soul can exit the physical
body at the end of life, then it must also be able
to enter the body at the beginning of life. But
when is that? Well, nobody knows, exactly.
Some
believe that the body can exist and continue to
perform physical functions after the soul has withdrawn.
This would explain the pitiful condition of those
who can't seem to die but whose personalities are
no longer recognizable as the person we knew.
It
is common knowledge that the physical body is dead
when it has exhaled for the last time. We refer
to death as expiration (from the Latin ex = out
of or from and spiritus = breath) and we know that
the last breath marks the end of life. Is it not
reasonable, then, to consider the possibility that
the soul may enter the body, that life may begin,
with the first breath?
That
initial, painful inhalation of air into the lungs
is the first, involuntary and independent act of
the newly expelled fetus. It breathes in and it
cries out, in that order.
In
Genesis 2:7 we read, "And the Lord God created
man from the dust and breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life; and man became a living soul."
Perhaps that first breath of life and "becoming
a living soul" do, indeed, mark the beginning
of a human life. Perhaps not.
It
is possible that the independent entity we call
the soul, has some rights of its own; that it has
the right to choose where and when it shall begin
life. It is even possible that the soul is influenced
and directed by events and changes that occur in
the life of the intended mother, during the term
of her pregnancy. We don't know that, of course,
but neither can we prove otherwise.
Suppose,
for example, that the pregnant woman is stricken
with an incurable disease or that she suffers a
fatal accident. Is the inhabitant in the embryo
or the soul waiting to inhabit that embryo, as the
case may be, "stuck" with this sudden,
unexpected turn of events? Does that soul never
get another chance at life? Can that be?
There
is no way that anyone who has not conceived can
possibly comprehend the significance of learning
that you are pregnant with child; that something
is growing inside your body which will eventually
escape in the throes of labor; that you will be
responsible for another human being's care, custody
and control. Learning you are pregnant is overwhelming
news which will affect every hour of every day of
the rest of your life--regardless of the outcome.
There
is an abundance of muddled thinking about the abortion
issue. Surely any thinking person will have asked
himself or herself: What constitutes human life?
When does a human life begin? Is it at the moment
of conception? sometime later? at birth? Science
has never established when a human life begins or
proved that an embryo contains a conscious soul.
The actual beginning of life, the moment in time
when a conscious, animating, individual personality
takes up residence in a physical embryo has never
been, and may never be, authenticated. So by what
authority does one claim to know whether a life
is blotted out or simply postponed when an embryo
is aborted--either naturally or by induced abortion?
When
we truly seek to understand abortion, the most significant
question that surfaces is this one: if there really
is an irreversible permanence about an interrupted
pregnancy, if this singular pregnancy is the one
and only chance that a particular soul will ever
have at life, then how do we explain the phenomenon
of miscarriages and still births in nature?
It
makes you wonder if the embryo may be nothing more
than a potential vehicle for a soul; if an embryo
can be "vacant" until some future point?
It
makes you wonder if a disembodied soul may have
rights of its own; whether a soul may be able to
choose to enter a particular embryo or, by the same
token, to reject it. In the latter case, we would
find ourselves once again concerned about a miscarriage
or an abortion that has taken place. But can we
be sure it was fatal?
Only
God knows for sure. |
