method of birth control in which conception is terminated rather than prevented.
Abortion
ancient Greece, recommended abortion in order to avoid excess population.
Plato and Aristotle
attributed to Hippocrates who lived during the 4th century B.C. – contains a pledge not to give women treatments that will lead to abortion, indicating that even at this early time, abortion was a common practice.
Hippocratic Oath
The state recognizes the sanctity of life and shall protect and strengthen the family as a basic autonomous social institution. It shall equally protect the life of the mother and the life of the unborn from conception.”
Article II, Section 12 of the 1986 Philippine Constitution
He defines it as the expulsion of a living fetus from the mother’s womb before it is viable.
Dr. Andre E. Hellegers
is defined as “termination of pregnancy, spontaneously or by induction, prior to viability. Thereafter, termination of pregnancy is called delivery.”
Abortion by (Reich, 1978)
the expulsion of the fetus through natural or accidental causes.
Natural abortion
refers to the deliberately induced expulsion of a living fetus before it has become viable.
Direct or Intentional abortion
the deliberately induced expulsion of a living fetus in order to save the mother from the danger of death brought on by pregnancy.
Therapeutic Abortion
this is recommended in cases where certain defects are discovered in the developing fetus. The argument is that it is better for a child not to be born than for it to lead a miserable life, burdened with crippling genetic disorders.
Eugenic Abortion
upholds that ensoulment occurs at a later time but not from the moment of conception.
Delayed animation
the removal of the fetus occurs as a secondary effect of a legitimate or licit action, which is the direct and primary object of the intention.
Indirect abortion
The Moral Issue
• Immediate hominization
• Delayed animation
contends that a new human person exists immediately upon conception.
Immediate hominization
the fusion of the spiritual soul into the embryo occurs when the body is sufficiently organized to sustain the intellectual principle or the so-called substantial form of man.
Ensoulment
Various types of interpretations of delayed animation
• Implantation
• Unity and uniqueness
• Looks human
• Electrical Activity
• Quickening
• Viability
• Birth
Ensoulment occurs at implantation, which is the time when the embryo travels down the fallopian tube towards the uterus and buries itself in the endometrium or uterine wall (approximately one week after conception).
Implantation
At six weeks the embryo takes on a more human form; some positions therefore argue that early abortion (before this point) is permissible.
Looks human
which is the time when the embryo travels down the fallopian tube towards the uterus and buries itself in the endometrium or uterine wall (approximately one week after conception).
Implantation
The detection of electrical impulses (brain activity) is seen by some as the point of ensoulment.
Electrical activity
At two to four weeks after conception, the embryo has already implanted itself in the endometrium. Some positions hold abortion is not permissible after this point.
Unity and uniqueness
The mother can feel the spontaneous movements of the fetus during the 10th to 12th week. Some moral positions hold abortion is not permissible after quickening.
Quickening
