The Catholic Lawyer

Volume 17 Number 1 Volume 17, Winter 1971, Number 1 Article 3

Human Life and Abortion

Paul V. Harrington

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PAUL V. HARRINGTON, P.A., J.C.L.*

Introduction E fforts to liberalize or repeal existing abortion statutes constitute one of the leading controversies today in the fields of morality, medicine, law, legislation, social and genetic engineering and population and en- vironmental control. Every statute, that involves a moral issue, must reflect the moral views of some group in the community. This fact does not prevent a legislature from acting in accordance with definitive moral teachings and it does not cause such enactments to become unconstitutional by reason of an alleged establishment of religion. From time immemorial, innocent, defenseless, human life has always been accorded a prestigious value and a preeminence of respectful recognition; our very country was founded and established on the cornerstone and principle that every human life was to receive the equal protection of the laws and was not to be destroyed without due process of law. Respect for human life is not the monopoly of any single com- munity; it cuts across all sectarian and denominational lines. When Roman Catholics oppose the legalization of abortion, it cannot be stated that they are trying to impose narrow, limited, sectarian views on a pluralistic society, since our society has always been dedicated to the principle of profound respect for innocent, human life. We are also told that Roman Catholics do not have to have abor- tions but they should not deny to others of different mind and conscience the opportunity to have a legal abortion. There are two fallacies in such a statement. The first is based on the assumption that voluntary abor- tion will never become mandatory abortion. Any knowledgeable person,

* Presiding Judge, Metropolitan Tribunal of the Archdiocese of Boston. This article should be read in conjunction with a series of articles written by Msgr. Harrington concerning abortion, which appeared in THE LINACRE QUARTERLY (Nov., 1965-Feb., 1971). Any reader desiring footnotes and references should consult this publication. 17 CATHOLIC LAWYER, WINTER 1971 who witnesses the autocratic and apodictic In areas, where the continuance of the dogmatism of unofficial governmental pregnancy might threaten the life or phys- policy, the very positive statements of ical health of the expectant mother, a doc- governmental officials and the efforts to tor would be qualified to make a sound push anti-life philosophy, will realize that judgment about the advisability of an abor- mandatory abortion is only one step re- tion. However, tremendous development in moved from voluntary, legalized abortion medical science has removed pregnancy on demand. from being a threat to the life and health of the expectant mother. Where her per- The second fallacy is that the norm for sonal comfort and convenience are con- right and proper conduct is not that which cerned, where poverty might be a question, is objectively good and virtuous but rather what any given individual wants. If that or where some other economic or social be involved, the doctor, while principle were to become our guiding norm issue might technically and professionally equipped to and criterion, it would be impossible to abortion, would have ab- have any criminal laws, which proscribe perform the professional qualification or and prohibit wrongful actions. We could solutely no suggest or recommend not outlaw bank robbery; rather we would expertise to counsel, would be entirely outside have to say that bank robbery is to be per- an abortion; such competency. mitted to those who want to rob banks; his those who are opposed need not participate. When the proponents suggest leaving the We could not and should not prohibit mur- question of abortion to the conscience of der, homicide, aggravated assault, armed the individual, they are not speaking of an robbery, rape, car thefts; rather, we should informed conscience which has arrived at make such actions available to those who a definite decision on the basis of objective wish to take advantage of them while those right or objective wrong. Rather, they are who are opposed need not become involved. referring to the merely personal judgment Our norm for proper conduct can never and private opinion of the individual, which be what some persons want and what other mirrors only the personal wants, wishes, persons do not want; rather our guidelines desires and interests of the expectant and criteria must be based upon what is mother-not the rights of her unborn child objectively right for everyone; what is ob- to live and to be born. jectively wrong for everyone and what pro- The law, proscribing abortion, is neces- motes or destroys the common good and sary in order to give a defense to the un- the public welfare for everyone. born child. The law will recognize the In this same connection, the proponents inalienable and inviolable rights of the of abortion repeal state that the entire unborn child against its mother, who would question of abortion should be a matter of want to destroy him and become his exe- the private opinion, judgment and con- cutioner or against the doctor, who would science of the expectant mother herself or be intent on consigning him to oblivion. a matter between the mother and her phy- The law would grant equal protection even sician and the law should not be involved to the unborn and would insist on due HUMAN LIFE AND ABORTION process before innocent, defenseless life son or group. These could be enforced only would be destroyed and terminated. with law and under the law. We should learn from an identical moral Similarly, the right of the unborn to live issue that resulted in tragedy while the and to be born can never be enforced if his matter was consigned to the conscience, the fate or destiny rests solely with the private private opinion and judgment of the indi- conscience or the personal conviction or vidual and it could only be remedied by belief of his mother. His right to life can extensive legislation that would recognize only be protected and enforced by having, and respect the equal rights under the law of on the statute books, laws which proscribe all human beings regardless of color. and prohibit abortion. Only such a statute can defend the unborn child from his own For over one hundred years, the great mother, who might become his executioner, majority of white people in these United or from her psychiatrist, who would counsel States considered the negro to be inferior, the abortion or from her surgeon, who a second class citizen and unworthy of would destroy him. equal rights. This resulted from their con- scientious belief, their private opinion and their personal judgment. This led to tre- Ancient and Medieval Church Attitudes mendous discrimination against the negro The Roman Catholic Church has always and the total and complete denial of his held, in regard to the morality of abortion, basic, constitutional, inalienable and in- that it is a serious sin to destroy a fetus at violable rights. Under such a system, the any stage of development. There has never negro had no defense; he had no forum by been any change or wavering in this very which he could seek or demand his rights. direct and forthright moral position. How- Ultimately, the extensive civil rights leg- ever, as a juridical norm in the deter- islation of the 1960's was necessary if there mination of penalties against abortion, the was to be a recognition of the equality, be- Church at various times did accept the dis- fore God and society, of the negro with tinction between a formed and an un- the white man, if he were to be accorded formed, an animated and an unanimated the inalienable rights of a human being and fetus. a first class citizen, if he were to be allowed The Pre-Christian Ancient Laws-the to live decently, to have good housing, to Sumerian Code (2000 B.C.), the Code of have equal educational opportunities and Hammurabi (1800 B.C.), the Assyrian advantages, to have proper job opportuni- Code (1500 B.C.), the Hittite Code (1300 ties, to have equal opportunity for promo- B.C.) and the Vendidad of ancient Persia tion and advancement to administrative (600 B.C.)-recognized human life in the and executive positions. fetus, warned a pregnant woman from ter- None of these rights were recognized or minating her pregnancy, charged her and respected while the fate and destiny of the the infant's father with deliberate murder, negro rested with the conscience, the opin- if they violated this order and established ion or the judgment of the individual per- severe penalties against those who deliber- 17 CATHOLIC LAWYER, WINTER 1971 ately or accidentally caused a pregnant gerous drugs, which were used to procure woman to lose her unborn child. an abortion, were subject to prosecution. In the second century of the Christian era, There is indirect evidence in the 9th and abortion was considered a separate crime 6th centuries B.C. that abortion was for- and a woman, who intentionally sought an bidden and penalized in Greece. abortion, would be exiled for depriving her In the Jewish laws, there is a different husband of children. penalty for abortion depending upon which Under the Roman Law, the unborn was text of the Scriptures is used. The citation not considered to be a human being be- is the Book of Exodus, chapter 21, verses cause the human soul was infused only at 22-23. The Vulgate text speaks of an birth. The fetus was thought to be part of accidental abortion and states that if a per- the mother and a potential person. How- son struck a pregnant woman and caused ever, the interference with a pregnancy was her to suffer an abortion a fine was levied punishable because the father's rights were and, if the mother died, the guilty person violated, there was danger to the mother, was condemned to death. there was bad example or there was a denial of the State's right to children. The In the Septuagint version, compensation penalty was condemnation to the mines, was to be paid if the aborted fetus was un- permanent exile or partial formed but the death penalty was to be im- temporary or However, if the posed if the fetus was formed. The Sep- forfeiture of possessions. mother died, the death penalty was de- tuagint text clearly considered the formed manded. fetus to be a human being. In opposition to the Roman Law posi- The Jewish law, according to the Alex- tion that abortion violated the rights of andrian School, held that voluntary abor- others-notably the father-the Church fetus was murder since tion of a developed condemned abortion as a violation of the the life of a human being was sacrificed. In rights of the unborn. accordance with the Palestinian School of Jewish Law, which followed the Hebrew The command "Thou shalt not kill the text of the Scriptures, abortion was not fetus by an abortion" was found in the considered to be murder. The Talmud Didache (80-100 A.D.), the Pseudo-Bar- looked upon the fetus as part of the mother. nabas Epistle (before 132 A.D.) and in the Canones Ecclesiastici SS. Apostolorum The legislation, with respect to abortion (about 300 A.D.). The Apostolic Consti- from one under Roman Law, differed tutions (c. 400 A.D.) also added that the history of period to another. In the earliest formed fetus possesses a soul and it would the Monarchy, a husband was allowed to be murder to dispose of it. divorce his wife if she had deliberately secured an abortion. Abortion, as a crime, In the East, Athenagoras stated about was not punished during the Republic or 177 A.D. that the Christians believed that Empire. Under the Cornelian Law, those women, who resorted to abortion, were who made, sold or administered the dan- guilty of homicide. In the West, Tertullian, HUMAN LIFE AND ABORTION who died about the year 240 A.D., termed stated that "a woman who deliberately de- deliberate abortion murder after sufficient stroys a fetus is answerable for murder. growth had been realized and since murder And any fine distinction as to its being is forbidden, it is sinful to destroy the completely formed or unformed is not ad- human being that is growing in the mother's missible amongst us." Also, "women who womb. Minucius Felix, who died in the give drugs that cause abortion are them- third century A.D., and St. Cyprian, who selves also murderers as well as those who died in 258 A.D., claimed that parents, take the poisons that kill the fetus." This who procure an abortion, are guilty of par- would appear to be the first legislation that ricide. Hippolytus, who died about 235 punished those who cooperated in making A.D., considered the intentional killing of the abortion possible. the unborn child to be murder. St. John Chrysostom, who died in 407 These statements, by early Christian A.D., spoke of the destruction of the un- Fathers, made it possible for the Councils born as "murder before birth." St. Augus- of the Fourth Century to condemn abor- tine, who died in 430 A.D., indicated that tion as murder and to inflict severe pen- the destruction of a formed fetus was mur- alties. der and he severely condemned anyone who intentionally and directly interfered The Council of Elvira in Spain, held with any fetus, formed or not. St. Jerome, about 300 A.D., declared that, if a woman who died in 420 A.D., held that the de- conceived as a result of an adulterous struction of a developed fetus was abortion, union, and killed the product of this con- murder and parricide. ception, she was to be denied Communion throughout her lifetime and even on her In 524 A.D., the Council of Lerida in death bed. This Canon would also apply Spain considered abortion and infanticide to the killing of a fetus, conceived in a legit- as crimes. imate marriage, because the primary pur- St. Martin of Braga said that abortion, pose of this statute was to preserve the life attempted abortion, infanticide and contra- of the unborn infant. ceptive practices should be punished and Canon 21 of the Council of Ancyra, added, for the first time in western legis- which was held in Asia Minor in 314 A.D., lation, that those who cooperated in the refers to the ancient law that punished the crime also were subject to the penalty for killing or the attempting to kill the unborn abortion. infant by its mother with life-long excom- The Trullan Synod, held at Constanti- munication and lessened the penalty to ten nople in 692 A.D., followed the position years of varying penances. This statute, of St. Basil the Great, and held that coop- both in its condemnation of abortion and erators in the crime of abortion were sub- in its penalty, was the basis for most of the ject to the penalties for murder. subsequent legislation in the Church down The outstanding Greek canonical collec- to the Middle Ages. tion, The Photian Collection, was made in St. Basil the Great (374 or 375 A.D.) 883 A.D. and was recognized as the official 17 CATHOLIC LAWYER, WINTER 1971 law in the Eastern Church in 920 A.D. On interference with fetal life and a second in the subject of abortion, this collection in- which the distinction between the formed cluded the statutes from the Council of and the non-formed fetus is set forth with Ancyra, the Trullan Synod and the writings the resultant effect that the destroying of of St. Basil. a formed fetus is murder-a declaration of St. Jerome that the destruction of a non- The Nomocanon of Gregory Bar-Hebra- formed fetus is not murder and a letter of eus, who died in 1286 A.D., is the best Pope Stephen V in which it is presumed known of the Collections of the Syrian Mo- that the crime of abortion is murder. nophysite Church and declares those indi- viduals to be voluntary murderers who The texts on abortion, presented by Ivo provide abortifacient drugs to women and of Chartres, would find their way into the a fine was to be imposed upon all who very important Decree of Gratian. The procured an abortion by bodily violence. great contribution of Ivo of Chartres to later legislation on abortion is his introduc- In the Western Church, the Italian Ca- tion into canonical collections of the dis- 450 nonical Collection appeared about tinction between the formed and non- A.D. and incorporated the law of the formed fetus and this had influence on the abor- Council of Ancyra with reference to law up to the present century. St. Basil tion and its penalty of ten years of penance. had rejected this distinction and no Council This statute of the Council of Ancyra was had ever recognized or adopted it. also included in the Collection of Dionysius Exiguus, who died about 540 A.D., the Gratian concluded that abortion of an Collectio Quesnelliana, which was compiled animated fetus is definitely murder and between 500 and 550 A.D., and in the carries the penalties for homicide; abor- African, Spanish and Frankish Canonical tion of a non-animated fetus was not mur- Collections. der. However, Gratian does not attempt to establish when the moment of animation From these Canonical Collections, the arrives. legislation of the various Councils on abor- tion was incorporated into the Capitularies, Roland Bandinelli, writing about 1148 Penitential Books and in Synodal Statutes. A.D., and Rufinus, writing about 1157- 1159 A.D., in their commentaries on the The Council of Worms in 866 A.D., de- Decree of Gratian and the Glossa Ordinaria clared that women who deliberately de- on the Decree of Gratian, assembled by stroyed their unborn infants were to be John Tevtonicus in 1215-1217 A.D. and judged as murderers. finalized by Bartholomew of Brescia about In addition to the legislation from the 1245 A.D., continued the distinction be- Councils of Ancyra and Lerida and the tween the formed and unformed fetus and writings of Martin of Braga, the Decree of declared that the soul was infused only Ivo of Chartres, who died in 1116 A.D., after some development of the body and, if included also two quotations from St. the soul had already been infused, an abor- Augustine-one in which he condemns tion was murder. HUMAN LIFE AND ABORTION

The Compilation of Bernard of Pavia, tors agreed that a male fetus was without assembled between 1188 and 1192 A.D., life for the first forty days and the female contained the text of the Book of Exodus fetus was without life for the first eighty from the Vulgate Translation and the days. Canon of Regino of Prium as accepted by Abortion was considered by all to be a Burchard of Worms. This Compilation serious sin even though the fetus was not holds that murder is involved when there animated and even though true murder may is an abortion of a formed child, and, if not be involved. The distinction between this is deliberate, the penalty is deposition animation and non-animation was adopted for clerics and excommunication for lay- more for the imposition of penalties than men. If the fetus is non-formed, the penalty to determine the gravity of the sin. is as for homicide and is to be imposed at the discretion of a judge. The Synod of Riez in 1285 imposed a penalty of automatic excommunication, re- The Decretals of Pope Gregory IX, com- served to the Holy See for absolution, on piled by St. Raymond of Pennafort and everyone who was involved in the com- promulgated as an authentic collection of mission of an abortion or a murder by laws for the Universal Church in 1234, con- knowingly assisting, advising, suggesting tained two canons on abortion: one was a or by selling or providing drugs. This legis- letter written by Pope Innocent III in 1211 lation of the Council of Riez did not distin- to the Carthusians, which recognized the guish between animation and non-anima- distinction between animation and non- tion and was adopted almost verbatim by animation; the second was a canon intro- the Councils of Avignon in 1326 and 1337 duced by Regino of Prium and, for the first and by the Synod of Lavaur in 1368. time, was now included in an official col- lection. This canon states that anyone who In addition to the crime of abortion and its penalties, does anything to a man or woman or gives the Council of Avignon in 1326 declared that the securing of an them anything to drink which interferes abor- tion on oneself or on another with the conception, the growth or the was a sin, which delivery of a child is to be held as a mur- was reserved to the Bishop or his delegate for absolution. derer. At least nineteen synods or councils, held between the mid- The Commentators of the Decretals thirteenth and the mid-sixteenth centuries, interpreted the canons to mean that abor- also reserved the sin of abortion to the tion of an animated fetus was true murder Bishop. because a human being was killed and The Council of Trent did not legislate merited the full penalties for murder. The directly concerning abortion but the penal- abortion of a non-animated fetus, steriliza- ties it decreed on homicide could apply to tion and contraception were considered to abortion in the event that the fetus was be quasi-homicide. animated. None of the official texts indicated when Two important Constitutions concerning animation occurred but most commenta- abortion were issued by two Popes within 17 CATHOLIC LAWYER, WINTER 1971 three years of each other: The Constitu- the law concerning abortion until the codi- tion Effraenatam of Pope Sixtus V in 1588 fication of the Church Law in 1918, but and the Constitution Sedes Apostolicae of the censure of excommunication was modi- Pope Gregory XIV in 1591. The second fied somewhat in the Constitution Apos- Constitution agreed with and confirmed the tolicae Sedis of Pope Pius IX in 1869. first in its entirety with the exception of two Pope Pius IX did not recognize the changes or modifications. distinction between animated and non- Pope Sixtus had declared penalties for animated fetus and thus, in the period the abortion of a non-animated as well as between 1869 and 1918, the automatic an animated fetus and, in this respect, this excommunication was incurred for any legislation differed from what had prevailed abortion or for any deliberate expulsion from the Decree of Gratian in 1140 up to from the mother's womb of a non-viable 1588. Pope Gregory XIV limited his law fetus. No longer did the forty and eighty only to the abortion of an animated fetus, day rule prevail and the legislation of Pope thus returning to the decrees in force prior Sixtus V, which was in force between 1588 to 1588. and 1591, was again the law of the Church from 1869 to 1918. Pope Sixtus had decreed an additional penalty for abortion-an automatic excom- Under the legislation of Pope Pius IX, munication, which was reserved, for its the abortion had to be accomplished as a absolution, to the Holy See except in result of the means employed before penal- danger of death. Pope Gregory XIV ties were incurred. Thus, if the attempt at changed the reservation for absolution to abortion failed or if the abortion was ef- the local Bishop. fected but as a result of means other than those employed for that purpose, no penal- Henceforth, the penalties for procuring ties could be imposed. or cooperating in the procuring of the abor- tion of an animated fetus were: automatic To demonstrate that the Catholic Church excommunication reserved to the Bishop, has always and everywhere recognized the irregularity, all the penalties which had dignity of human life and the need to been legislated by ecclesiastical and civil respect and protect human life, particularly laws for voluntary murder, exclusion from of the unborn and the newborn, it is any ecclesiastical office, benefice or dignity noted that, from 1872 to 1902, the Sacred and, if clerics are involved, deposition and Penitentiary and the Holy Office gave six degradation and the transfer to the civil replies to inquiries about the moral licitness authorities for the imposition of civil law of surgical procedures, which destroyed the penalties. human fetus. Another matter of interest and concern, Modern Church Attitudes in the latter part of the nineteenth century, These two Constitutions, with respect to was the moral licitness of extracting an the irregularity and other vindictive penal- ectopic fetus. Beginning in 1893, the entire ties, remained in force and continued to be subject was discussed in the Ecclesiastical HUMAN LIFE AND ABORTION

Review and four renowned moral theolo- cerning this moral evil, which has been gians participated-Lehmkuhl, Sabetti, consistently condemned in the teachings of Aertnys and Eschbach. Christ and the Apostolic Fathers, in the legislation of all Councils and Synods, in The Holy Office issued three replies on the Formal Collections of Law and in the the question of ectopic pregnancies on recent pronouncements of the Supreme 19, 1889, May 4, 1898, and May 5, August Pontiffs. In all of the two thousand years of 1902. Christian tradition, the Catholic Church The Code of Canon Law, which was has never recognized abortion as virtuous, promulgated on May 27, 1917 by Pope has never advised or recommended that Benedict XV and which became effective abortions be performed, has never allowed on May 19, 1918, has two references to or tolerated abortions. The Catholic Church abortion: the first, with reference to the has always and consistently and without fitness of candidates for Holy Orders, exception denounced abortion as a moral states: "Men who have committed volun- evil, as a sin, and, in certain circumstances, tary homicide or who have successfully even as a crime. procured the abortion of a human fetus and Even from the twelfth to the twentieth all their accomplices are irregular by rea- centuries, when only the destruction of an son of a crime" (Canon 985 n. 4); the animated fetus was considered murder, second, with reference to crimes, declares: "those who successfully procure an abor- the Catholic Church did not recommend or advise, did not allow or tolerate the abor- tion, the mother not excepted, automatically tion of a non-animated fetus. The Catholic incur an excommunication reserved to the Church condemned such abortions as Bishop, and if they are clerics, they are morally evil and sinful. Recall that the law in addition to be deposed" (Canon 2350 recognized such killings as quasi-homicides § 1). and inflicted penances, penalties and pun- ishments for these deaths even though they Consistency of Church Attitudes were less severe as compared with the pen- The proponents of legalized abortion alties incurred for the killing of an animated claim that the Catholic Church has not held fetus. a consistent and unchangeable position on abortion down through the centuries; that Abortion is rejected as a very serious the Catholic Church has recognized the and unspeakable crime in two Papal En- right to perform an abortion before the cyclicals, in a reply of the Holy Office, fetus has become animated; that the Cath- which had Papal approval, in eight Papal olic Church has allowed abortion before Allocutions, in a Constitution emanating the fetus became formed. from the Second Vatican Council and in a statement from the Hierarchy of the United Nothing could be further from the truth. States-all between 1930 and 1970. The Catholic Church has never allowed or tolerated abortion; the Catholic Church These documents speak of abortion as an has never changed its basic principles con- attack on the life of the offspring while it 17 CATHOLIC LAWYER, WINTER 1971 is yet hidden in the womb of its mother; could describe as an unjust assailant the destruction of the begotten but unborn an innocent child. . . . Nor, finally, child; as a lethal operation; the direct kill- does there exist any so-called right ing of the innocent; the infliction of death of extreme necessity which could upon the child; the direct killing of an in- extend to the direct killing of an nocent human being; as an act unworthy innocent human being." (Encyclical, of the high repute of the medical profes- Casti Connubii, December 31, sion; as criminally and ruthlessly putting 1930). offspring to death; perishing before it is c) "Doctors who encompass the death born; as the killing of the innocent which of the mother or the child, whether is an irrational proceeding and contrary on the plea of medical treatment or to the divine law; an illicit attempt on in- from a motive of misguided compas- violable human life; the direct suppression unworthy of of the fetus; as a violation of the integrity sion, act in a manner the high repute of the medical pro- of the human person which is an infamy fession." (Encyclical, Casti Con- that poisons human society, does more nubii, December 31, 1930). harm to those who practice them than those who suffer from the injury, is a supreme d) "It is permissible and even obliga- dishonor to the Creator; as a dishonorable tory to take into account the evi- solution to the controlling of the size of dence alleged in regard to the social the family. and eugenic 'indication' so long as are Let us ponder and reflect some of the legitimate and proper means wisdom contained in these Papal Allocu- used and due limits observed; but to attempt to meet the needs upon tions: which it is based by the killing of a) "The infliction of death whether the innocent is an irrational proceed- upon the mother or upon the child ing and contrary to the divine law; is against the commandment of God a law promulgated also by the and the voice of nature: 'Thou Apostle when he says that we must shalt not kill.' The lives of both are not do evil that good may come." equally sacred and no one, even the (Encyclical Casti Connubii, Decem- public authority, can ever have the ber 31, 1930). right to destroy them." (Encyclical e) "Governments and legislatures must Casti Connubii, December 31, remember that it is the duty of the 1930). public authority to protect the life b) "It is absurd to invoke against in- of the innocent by appropriate laws nocent human beings the right of the and penalties, especially when those state to inflict capital punishment. whose life is attacked and endan- • . .Nor is there any question here gered are unable to protect them- of the right of self-defense . . . selves, as is particularly the case with against an unjust assailant; for none infants in their mother's womb. If HUMAN LIFE AND ABORTION

the State authorities not only fail to mother or of the child: and no one protect these little ones, but by their in the world, no private person, no laws and decrees suffer them to be human power, may authorize him to killed, and even deliver them into proceed to such a complete destruc- the hands of doctors and others for tion. His office is not to destroy life that purpose, let them remember but to save it." (Allocution of Pope that God is the Judge and Avenger Pius XII to the Biological-Medical of the innocent blood that cries Union of St. Luke, November 12, from earth to heaven." (Encyclical, 1944). December 31, Casti Connubii, h) "The child is 'man,' even if he be 1930). not yet born, in the same degree f) With the approval and confirmation and by the same title as his mother. of Pope Pius XII, the Holy Office, Every human being, even the child on December 2, 1940, replied that in the womb, has the right to life it was illicit and against the natural directly from God and not from his law and the divine positive law parents, not from any society or "upon order from the public author- human authority. Therefore, there is ity, to kill directly persons who, al- no man, no human authority, no though they have committed no science, no 'indication' at all, crimes which merits death, are whether it be medical, eugenic, nevertheless, owing to psychic or social, economic or moral-that physical defects, unable to be of may offer or give a valid judicial any use to the nation, and are rather title for a direct deliberate disposal judged to be a burden to it and to be of an innocent human life, that is, a an obstacle to its vigor and strength." disposal which aims at its destruc- (Footnote, p. 407; Bouscaren, tion. . . . The life of an innocent Canon Law Digest, Vol. II, pp. 96- person is sacrosanct, and any direct 97). attempt or aggression against it is a violation of one of the fundamental as a man is not guilty, his g) "As long laws without which secure human and every act life is sacrosanct, society is impossible." (Allocution to destroy such which tends directly of Pope Pius XII to Midwives, unlawful, whether a life is therefore October 29, 1951). such destruction is intended as an end in itself or only as a means to an i) "Innocent human life, in whatever end, whether it is a matter of a life condition it may be, from the first in embryonic form or already fully moment of its existence is to be pre- developed and at its peak. God served from any direct voluntary alone is Master of the life of a man attack. This is a fundamental right not guilty of a crime punishable by of the human person, of general death! The doctor has no right to value in the Christian concept of dispose of the life either of the life; valid both for the still hidden 17 CATHOLIC LAWYER, WINTER 1971

life in the womb and for the new life of the child from the womb to born babe; and opposed to direct the cradle, and here must be in- abortion as it is to the direct killing cluded not only the direct killing of of the child before, during, and the innocent, but also the fraud after birth. No matter what the dis- against the plans of nature which, as tinction between those different such, express the will of the Creator." moments in the development of the (Letter of Monsignor Montini to life, already born or still to be born, CardinalSiri on the occasion of the for profane and ecclesiastical law 26th Social Week of Italian Catho- and for certain civil and penal conse- lics, September 27, 1953). quences-according to the moral k) "Medical law is subject to medical law, in all these cases it is a matter ethics, which expresses the moral of grave and illicit attempts on in- order willed by God. violable human life. .. ." Therefore, medical law can never "But-it is objected-the life of the permit either the physician or the mother, especially the mother of a patient to practice direct euthanasia, large family, is far superior in value and the physician can never practice to that of the still unborn child. it either on himself or on others. . . . The reply to this tormenting This is equally true for the direct objection is not difficult. The in- suppression of the fetus and for violability of the life of an innocent medical actions which go counter to person does not depend on its the law of God clearly manifested." greater or lesser value. More than (Radio message by Pope Pius XII to ten years ago, the Church formally The International Congress of Cath- condemned the killing of a life olic Physicians, September 11, deemed 'useless'; and those who 1956). know the sad antecedents that pro- voked such a condemnation, those 1) "Human life is sacred: from its very who know how to ponder the disas- inception, the creative action of God trous consequences that would fol- is directly operative. By violating low were the sanctity of an innocent His laws, the Divine Majesty is of- life to be measured according to its fended, the individuals themselves value, can easily appreciate the and humanity degraded, and like- motives which led to such a disposi- wise the community itself of which tion" (Allocution of Pope Pius XII they are members is enfeebled." to the Association of the large (Encyclical, Mater et Magistra, of families, November 26, 1951). Pope John XXIII, May 15, 1961). j) "It is criminal, therefore-in no m) "Furthermore, whatever is opposed matter justified by a reason of the to life itself, such as any type of State or eugenic or economic argu- murder, genocide, abortion, eutha- ment-to make any attack on the nasia or wilful self-destruction. HUMAN LIFE AND ABORTION

whatever violates the integrity of the nomic, in performing an abortion and, if human person . . . all these things he does, he commits a heinous crime, is a and others of their like are infamies disgrace to the profession of medicine, indeed. They poison human society, which exists to protect and safeguard hu- but they do more harm to those who man life, and does a disservice to humanity. practice them than those who suffer from the injury. Moreover, they are English and American Legal Treatment a supreme dishonor to the Creator." (Constitution On the Church In the With reference to statutes prohibiting Modern World, n.27, Vatican Coun- abortion, it might be mentioned that, in cil II). English law, abortion, at least after "quick- ening," was a form of homicide. The n) "For God, the Lord of life, has con- "quickening" requirement originated with ferred on men the surpassing minis- Coke and was predicated on the limited, try of safeguarding life in a manner inadequate and erroneous medical knowl- which is worthy of men. Therefore edge of his day. "Quickening" was the first from the moment of its conception manifestation of animate life within the life must be guarded with the great- womb of which common law men could be est care." (Constitution On the certain. However, as early as 1803, when Church in the Modern World, n. 51, the first English statute on abortion was Vatican Council II). passed, the requirement of "quickening" These Papal Encyclicals and Allocutions was removed and all abortions were pro- and Conciliar statements clearly and un- hibited, although the penalties were more mistakably indicate that God is the Creator severe if the abortion was performed after of human life which becomes operative at the fetus had quickened. the very moment of conception; that He and was enacted in England in He alone possesses dominion over human The statute 1803 by non-Catholics because Catholics life; that innocent, unborn human life is were not allowed to sit in Parliament until sacred and inviolable; that the right of the permission and recognition were given to unborn to live and to be born comes from them by the Act of 1829. Similarly, the God and not from parents, the state or statutes, proscribing abortion, were enacted society; that any direct and deliberate de- in the United States during the first half of struction of human life by abortion is an the nineteenth century when Catholics were unspeakable crime and can never be justi- small in numbers and were totally lacking fied no matter what apparent good could in influence. be achieved thereby; that a seemingly "use- less" life, that can never make a contribu- All of the legislation, passed in the sev- tion in accordance with the values and eral states, prohibited every type of abor- criteria of the world, has a right to live and tion except one that was essential to protect can never be intentionally destroyed; that the life of the mother. In these statutes, the a doctor is never justified, regardless of the law was balancing the life of the fetus indication, medical, eugenic, social or eco- against the life of the mother. If, in the 17 CATHOLIC LAWYER, WINTER 1971 medical knowledge of the early 1800's, the opinions of second rate psychiatric experts. life of the fetus was threatening the life of He also declared that, subsequent to his the mother, the law could not favor the life trial, every woman whom he refused to of the child over the life of the mother and, abort was happy after the birth of the child therefore, it could allow the taking of the that he did not destroy the child. life of the unborn in order to protect the life of the mother. In England, a liberal law became effec- tive in May, 1968. The statute basically The original statutes, enacted from 1800 considers abortion a crime but recognizes to 1850, were meant to protect the life of exceptional situations in which a legal abor- the mother and that is why they allowed for tion may be performed. In 1964, about an abortion of the fetus when the life of 3,300 interruptions of pregnancy occurred the mother was threatened by the con- in the National Service Hospitals undei tinuance of the pregnancy and could be the Bourne decision and about 10,000 ir safeguarded by the termination of the preg- the year immediately preceding the liberal- nancy. The statutes were intended to protect ization of the law. It was estimated that the life of the unborn since an abortion there would be about 50,000 legal abor- was prohibited in all other circumstances. tions in the first year-a five-fold increase. Therefore, it is entirely inaccurate to say About 40 percent of the abortions have that our present statutes were enacted only been performed in private nursing homes to protect the mother without any concern with the evident result that the profiteering for the life and welfare of her unborn abortionist, who was supposed to be put child. out of business by a liberalizing of the law, is very much in business. Abortion, in western civilization and democracy, was first liberalized by the Attempts to liberalize the abortion stat- landmark decision in the Rex v. Bourne utes in the United States began during the case in England in 1938. Despite the strin- period 1965 to 1969 and took the form of gent prohibition of the English statute, limited liberalization in accordance with the Doctor Bourne, to test the law and to force suggestions of the American Law Institute. liberalization, performed an abortion on a A change in the existing statutes was sought fourteen year old girl who had been raped to allow an abortion in cases where the by several soldiers. He justified his actions pregnancy resulted from rape or incest, by alleging that the total welfare of the where there was a possibility that the child young girl demanded that he abort her. He might be born damaged or where the con- was found not guilty of performing an abor- tinuation of the pregnancy was a threat to tion, proscribed by law. Doctor Alex the life and health of the mother. Bourne, the defendant, is now an executive on the Commission for the Protection of Despite a well-organized and coordi- Unborn Human Life and, in an article in nated campaign, a tremendously well- the London Express of January 25, 1967, financed machine, excellent exposure in states that Justice McNaughten, the trial the media of communications, the expendi- judge, was "taken in" by the psychiatric ture of tremendous time, effort and energy, HUMAN LIFE AND ABORTION only ten states succeeded in changing their The Eugenic Protection Law was passed laws and, of these, there was only one large in Japan in 1948 primarily to control popu- and prestigious state. The proponents re- lation growth. After her defeat in the ceived very little in return for the expen- Pacific War in 1945 and the loss of Man- diture of large amounts of money and time. churia, Korea and Formosa, Japan had to The reason for their failure was the fact squeeze 80 million people into an area one that they lacked the support of large num- twenty-fifth the size of the United States. bers of people. They said there was a large It is estimated that at least two million ground swell of support but the only evi- abortions were performed each year. Dur- dence of such was their own statement, ing the past twenty years, over 40 million which was deliberately put forth in order to Japanese lives were destroyed. The birth psychologically pattern people who like to rate dropped from 34.3 per 1,000 popula- be with the majority but even this did not tion to 17.5 per 1,000 population. The con- generate support. trol of population was so effective that Because only ten states liberalized their Japan became in this period a nation of laws during these five legislative years, the predominantly elderly people with very proponents, after the founding of the Na- few young people to support them and tional Association for the Repeal of Abor- care for them. Also, the Japanese had an tion Laws in Chicago in February, 1969, insufficient labor supply to man an ex- moved for total repeal of all statutes which panding economy and were forced to hu- was their ultimate objective, so that any miliate themselves and "lose face" by woman could have an abortion on her own importing their arch-rivals and traditional initiative or after a consultation with a enemies, the Koreans, to work in their fac- physician without alleging any cause or tories. In September, 1969, the Prime reason except her own wish and desire. Minister of Japan was forced to go before the Parliament and beg for a reconsidera- Again, after a well-organized and well- tion of the national population policy be- financed campaign and after tremendous cause already they were underpeopled from propaganda by the various media of com- the point of view of defense needs, eco- munications, only three further states have nomic viability and care of the elderly. legalized abortion on request or demand- Hawaii, Alaska over the veto of the gover- Before the United States attempts to nor, who had opposed it and New York, solve her population situation by wholesale which defeated the bill originally but destruction of human life through legalized passed it on a slim vote on reconsideration. abortion, let her ponder and reflect the Japanese experience. There is no easier Legal Treatment In Other Countries and quicker way for a nation to become fifth-rate than to depopulate itself. It would be hoped that the individual states in this country would profit from the Legalizing abortion in Japan did not very unsatisfactory experience in other eliminate criminal and illegal abortions. countries with legalized abortion and not There are about 1,100,000 registered abor- make the same mistakes which they made. tions and about 1,200,000 unregistered 17 CATHOLIC LAWYER, WINTER 1971 abortions each year. More illegal than legal or more abortions. I think our government abortions even though a legal abortion would be willing to change its policy now, could be had for the equivalent of $8.30 but it will have to change the mood of the American money. people first. That is not easy now once the people have the mood for birth control." In Japan, abortions are permitted up to the eighth month of pregnancy. One survey When a people become more attracted showed that 26 percent of aborted women towards non-life and even the suppressing reported that their health had been ad- of life already conceived, the government versely affected with another 16 percent can do very little to reverse the program. refusing to answer. A second survey The "mood for abortion" is intangible, elu- demonstrated that slight or severe health sive and hard to measure but very real and complications resulted in 47 percent of very devastating. cases with a somewhat higher incidence of morbidity in instances of repeated abor- The Japanese Minister of Welfare has tions. referred to abortion as "an evil practice eroding the physical and moral health of This is a high incidence of complications. our nation." With this evidence, who can say that abor- tion is a safe procedure even for the The Ministry of Welfare and Public mother? Health has completely changed its attitude towards abortion and has officially warned It has been reported that abortion is so that artificial abortion is not only not harm- popular in Japan that it has become fash- less but entails many undesired disasters ionable and has created an "abortion and should be avoided. mood," which has infected family and social life, undermined the relationship be- In 1962, an association for the Protec- tween parents and children, with the result tion of Life was formed in Osaka and that children experience a lack of parental Tokyo. Its primary purpose is to educate love and turn to anti-social behavior, crime and inform the citizens that artificial abor- and delinquency. tion is immoral and harmful to the health of mothers. Professor John Nishimoiri of Waseda University in Tokyo, speaking at the Asian In Sweden, the law was liberalized in Population Conference in New Delhi in 1938 to allow for abortions for sociomed- December, 1963, described the situation in ical, humanitarian and eugenic reasons. It his country: "The mood for birth control was further liberalized in 1946 and in 1963 is now so strong that people who fail with to include the likelihood of foreseeable ma- contraception resort to abortion. By now ternal weaknesses or the strain of giving we have maybe two million abortions a birth and caring for the new baby. year. A recent survey in Nagoya indicated that only one out of three women had suc- It is estimated that 38 percent of the ceeded with contraception. The other two- women apply for and are allowed a second thirds had one or two or three or even four abortion. In the period 1946 to 1951, more HUMAN LIFE AND ABORTION than 25 percent of all legal abortions were In the Soviet Union, there has been an accompanied by sterilization. ambivalent policy with respect to abortion. On November 8, 1920, the Soviet Union The number of legal abortions in Sweden became the first major world power to increased from about 400 in 1938 to 7,700 allow abortion at the request of the preg- in 1966. It is estimated that there are about nant woman. This was introduced by the 12,000 illegal abortions a year in Sweden government to emancipate women, to give -twice the number of legal abortions and them equal rights, among which was the the combined number of legal and illegal right not to give birth to an unwanted child, abortions each year represents a tremen- to eliminate illegal abortions and to enable dous destruction of innocent, human life. mothers to join the labor market as the In Denmark, there were about 500 legal country began a tremendous industrializa- abortions in 1939 before the law was liber- tion program. alized. There were 5,400 legal abortions in 1955 and 5,200 in 1965. It is reported that There was a four fold increase in legal there are about 15,000 illegal abortions a abortions between 1920 and 1925 and a year or three times the number of legal ten fold increase between 1925 and 1935. abortions. The figures would indicate that These abortions were performed in Abor- one in every four pregnancies is terminated toria and were done on an assembly line by abortion-a tremendous loss of human basis at eight minute intervals; another de- life. scription mentions that eight abortions were done in a two hour period with grue- In Finland, which allows an abortion for some efficiency. medical, eugenic and humanitarian indica- tions, there were 3,000 legal abortions in Doctors in the Soviet Union took a dim the first year after the liberalization of the view of the number of abortions and the law in 1950. This increased to 6,200 legal manner of execution and attempted to ad- abortions in 1960. There is no approxima- vise women against interruption of preg- tion of illegal abortions in Finland. nancy. The medical literature warned against the physical and emotional compli- The Norwegian statute, enacted in 1960, cations. Doctor Joseph De Lee, the former allows for an abortion in order to avert "a medical director of the University of Chi- serious danger to the woman's life or health. cago Lying-In, describes the morbidity: In the evaluation of the danger, any special "Russia has completely reversed its posi- disposition of the woman for physical or tion under the accumulated bad experience mental illness shall be taken into account with 140,000 such operations a year. The as well as her living conditions and other circumstances which can make her ill or authorities call the practice a serious psy- chic, moral and social evil and inherently result in damage to her physical or mental dangerous even when performed lege health." artis." There are no statistics as to the number of abortions performed under the new In June 27, 1936, a new decree was statute. issued, which prohibited abortion except 17 CATHOLIC LAWYER, WINTER 1971 for determined medical or eugenic consid- Between 1960 and 1964, the percentage erations. On November 23, 1955, abortion of women undergoing their third or higher on request or demand became the official abortion increased from 25.5 per cent to policy once again. 31.4 per cent. In the same period, the per- centage of those having their fifth or higher abortion rate in the Soviet Union The abortion increased from 5.2 per cent to 7.5 is believed to be the highest in the world. per cent. During these same four years, The estimates of the numbers of abortions there was a 64 per cent increase in the vary from two million to six million a year. number of childless women who submitted In Hungary, medical boards were estab- to abortion. lished to grant permission for therapeutic abortions in 1953. Prior to this date, there Permanent impairment of health has were about 1,700 legal abortions each year. been reported among thousands of Hun- This number increased to 82,000 in 1956. garian women, who have been aborted. A policy of abortion on demand was estab- There has been an alarming rise in prema- lished officially on June 3, 1956. The num- ture births, spontaneous abortions and ste- ber of legal abortions skyrocketed to rility. The numbers of premature births 123,400 in one year. In 1959, there was almost doubled and more than half the one abortion for every live birth. By 1964, mentally retarded children had been born there were 184,000 legal abortions and prematurely. 132,100 live births. Thus, the ratio of legal abortions to live births was 140 to 100 or Illegal abortion still exists in Hungary 7 legal abortions for every 5 births. More where a legal abortion is available on re- life was being destroyed than was allowed quest. Andras Klinger of the Hungarian to be born. Central Office of Statistics reveals that a 1964 study of the relationship of abortion the 17.8 abortions per 1,000 popula- If to prematurity demonstrates that there is a tion in Hungary were to be applied to the 10 percent incidence among women who 195 million population in the United States have never been aborted; 14 percent in 1964 and we also had a policy of legal among those who have had one abortion; abortion on request, we would have had 16 percent for those with two abortions approximately 3,471,000 legal abortions in and 21 percent for those with three or that year; if it were to be applied to our more abortions. present population of 205 million, the num- ber of legal abortions would be approxi- Leading intellectuals in Hungary, au- mately 3,649,000. Can we afford such tre- thors, magazine and newspaper editors mendous loss of life? Would we want a have noted with great concern the dangers reputation for such destruction of innocent, to the nation of a liberal abortion policy human life? and decried the anti-life attitude and men- In 1964, less than 4 percent of abor- tality which the country now experiences. tions were performed because of illness; the remainder were done for social or family One noted Hungarian writer declares reasons. that abortion entails not merely the de- HUMAN LIFE AND ABORTION struction of the child but also results in small number of the young must assume destruction of the mother and her nation. the great responsibility of supporting a large aging population; increased numbers With a high incidence of abortion and a of abortion has created an anti-life mental- low birth rate over the past twelve years, ity and philosophy with a consequent Hungary faces problems in business and demoralizing effect on the populace; a sig- industry in the decades ahead and a smaller nificant loss of humanitarian, civilized and and smaller group of earning young people cultured approach to life with an inevitable will have the responsibility of supporting dehumanizing effect on people, a rift in the an ever-increasing number of aged people. relationship between parents and children Poland is probably the easiest country with a subsequent increase in anti-social behavior in which to have an abortion. Many women and delinquency on the part of travel from Sweden to have an abortion the young; a lessening of professional dedi- cation that wouldn't be authorized in their own on the part of doctors who become country. A law was passed in 1956 which involved continuously in abortions and an permitted an abortion for a "difficult social increased interest in making money and situation." There were 1,400 legal abor- gaining larger profits; great pressures on tions in 1955 and this number increased to non-abortionist doctors to perform abor- 143,800 legal abortions in 1961. tions against their better medical judgment; larger numbers of concerned physicians, The combined results of many countries who are totally opposed to abortion on with extensive experience with liberalized demand or for socio-economic indications; or legalized abortion clearly establish: a a shortage of beds, staff and operating time tremendous increase in legal abortions, nec- for patients with bona fide conditions not essarily involving a tremendous destruc- related to abortion, with inevitable neglect tion of innocent, human life; criminal of their medical and surgical needs; an in- abortions may show a marked increase, creased dishonesty between the patients remain the same or manifest a decrease and doctors as evident in the fact that they after a liberal change in the law-but, in use social indications as medical indica- no instance, are criminal abortions elimi- tions; doctors who use untrue and non- nated; a considerable number of maternal existent reasons to perform abortions will deaths and significant physical and mental also use similar reasons to perform un- complications to the mother-both imme- necessary surgery; the doctor-patient rela- diate and delayed-with the result that an tionship will be damaged as seen in the induced abortion is not even a safe proce- situation where a girl, who goes to a doctor dure for the mother; abortion, legislated on to be aborted, will not return to him when a liberal basis to decrease population, has she is pregnant and wants the child, because caused a shortage of manpower for eco- she looks upon him as an abortionist and nomic growth and expansion, and national not as a doctor; the poor do not benefit defense, has decreased the number of from a liberalization of abortion statutes or younger people and increased the number legalization of abortion, since the oppor- of the elderly with the effect that a very tunity for legal abortions at a reasonable 17 CATHOLIC LAWYER, WINTER 1971 fee are not available to them; where abor- when a diagnosis of malignant disease is tion on demand is present, women conclude made in the early months of pregnancy, that they have a right to be aborted, they it may be treated by total extirpation of the pelvic organs or by the efficient pressure the doctor to perform the abor- use of radium or X-ray. The indirect interruption tion against his better judgment and they of pregnancy in these cases is the unde- threaten suit against the doctor, if he re- sired, unintentional and inevitable result of fuses to abort her. the radical attack on the malignant disease and is not a therapeutic abortion. With this known experience, verified over an extended period of time in many As to all of the other conditions, Doctors different countries, sure to be the experi- Heffernan and Lynch state unequivocally ence in this country, how can intelligent that therapeutic abortion is not indicated, and well-meaning Americans be convinced cannot be justified scientifically, does not that the total repeal of abortion statutes contribute to a betterment of the basic con- is useful, necessary or responsible? dition and accomplishes only one thing- murder of innocent lives. Their ultimate conclusion Medical Attitudes is now well known: "Anyone who performs a therapeutic abortion is In 1952 and 1953 Doctors Heffernan either ignorant of modern medical methods and Lynch, competent obstetricians and of treating the complications of pregnancy gynecologists, prepared papers on thera- or is unwilling to take the time to use peutic abortion in obstetrics and its scien- them." tific justification. At that time, they treated Doctors some serious complications to pregnancy, Heffernan and Lynch estab- which were considered by some obstetri- lished, by a survey of 171 hospitals and cians to be indications for terminating the covering over three million births, that in pregnancy by abortion, e.g., tuberculosis, the hospitals which allowed and performed cardiac diseases of all types; multiple scle- therapeutic abortions, there were a few rosis, chronic nephritis, glomerulonephritis, more maternal deaths then there were in hospitals in hypertension, benign pelvic tumors, malig- which therapeutic abortions were not nancy of pelvic organs, tumors of the gas- performed. As a result of this survey, the doctors tro-intestinal tract, lungs, kidneys and brain, concluded: secondary anemia, pernicious anemia of As therapeutic abortion involves the direct pregnancy, erythroblastosis, maternal oto- destruction of human life, it is contrary to sclerosis, ulcerative colitis, rubella and all the rules and traditions of good medical other viral diseases in pregnancy with pos- practice. From the very beginning, the ap- sible congenital malformations, neurolog- proach to the problem has been unscientific. ical complications and epilepsy, psychiatric In too many cases it was learned, after innumerable babies had been sacrificed, involvement and mental disease. that interruption of the pregnancy not only With reference to malignancy of the pel- caused 100 per cent fetal loss but also in- creased the maternal mortality. . . . A vic organs, the authors admit that this poses careful analysis of the indications for these a serious problem and add operations makes it rather clear that with HUMAN LIFE AND ABORTION

better prenatal care the lives of most of the 'unenlightened physician' of the pre- these infants could have been saved with- modern era with limited means, a faith in out necessarily increasing the maternal His Creator and an undying hope and mortality. . . . When the writings of inter- optimism, challenged disease. Today, with ested specialists in allied fields are analyzed, so many of his dreams realized in the grave doubts must arise concerning the armamentarium of modern medicine, some validity of any of the listed indications for of his successors would shrink from the therapeutic abortions. Furthermore, many challenge, face difficulties with pessimism authorities have deplored the destruction and, bowing to expediency, would destroy of the fetus in certain complications where life. Therapeutic abortion is a deliberate therapeutic abortion was performed not so destruction of innocent life, morally evil much because the condition endangered the and scientifically unjustified. Therapeutic mother's life but because of the expense abortion is legalized murder. and social hazards involved. The death of the fetus in these cases is rationalized on a Considering that the above findings and medical basis; but actually the chief motive remarks were true in 1952 and considering is the socio-economic factor. In such cases, how much progress and development have the physician not only neglects to safeguard occurred in the intervening years in diagno- the unborn life entrusted to his care but actually becomes the deliberate executioner sis, therapeutic care and management of of an innocent human being. Surely this is complications, it is certainly more true to- unethical and unscientific. . . . No proce- day that there is no complication to preg- dure which of its very nature violates the nancy that cannot be treated along with basic law of medicine 'to preserve life' and the pregnancy and there is no complication thereby carries with it such far-reaching that is a bona fide indication for terminat- implications should be perpetuated in the face of grave doubts as to its necessity and ing the pregnancy or for destroying the when its validity lacks scientific support.... unborn child provided the attending doc- Whatever nobility or esteem our profession tor is knowledgeable and is willing to take may claim derives from the fact that its the time and expend the energy to fulfill his members have dedicated their lives to the responsibilities to the unborn patient, which preservation of human life. The argument he freely assumed when he accepted the against therapeutic abortion from maternal law can be stated very briefly, the unborn pregnant woman as a patient. child is an innocent human being; its life It is clear, from the above, that there is is inviolable. To destroy that life deliber- ately is murder. . . . It is submitted that nothing to be gained by liberalizing the therapeutic abortion derives its origin from present abortion statutes to allow for an a train of thought which is foreign to the abortion where the continuation of the entire medical tradition in that its only pregnancy threatens the life or the physical effect is the destruction of life and offers health of the mother. no constructive effort to the solution of disease and the hazards of living. What about the justification or validity for abortion to protect and safeguard the Doctors Heffernan and Lynch conclude mental health of the pregnant woman? their articles: With reference to a woman who becomes pregnant while she Therapeutic abortion is an unworthy and is suffering from a unwholesome paradox in modern medicine, psychosis or neurosis or becomes the victim 17 CATHOLIC LAWYER, WINTER 1971 of a psychotic or neurotic illness while she However, psychiatry has not developed is pregnant, psychiatrists agree that the any professional norms, criteria or guide- mental illness is no complication to the lines whereby a psychiatrist can make a pregnancy and the pregnancy is no compli- scientifically valid judgment; at best, he is cation to the mental illness. Pregnant or making an educated guess and, most of the not, psychiatrists can make use of the same time, he is merely capitulating to the pres- therapeutic techniques including even sure brought to bear on him by the refer- shock therapy. Therefore, the presence of ring physician, by the obstetricians who mental illness can never be a justifiable or call him into consultation in order to au- valid indication for interrupting the preg- thorize an abortion, by the girl herself or nancy by abortion. members of her family, when he states that Also, an abortion could be disastrous continuation of the pregnancy will threaten to a person already suffering from a mental her mental health and an abortion is indi- illness because of the feelings of guilt that cated on psychiatric grounds. can and do follow an abortion. In this case, One study in Buffalo teaching hospitals the unborn child would be destroyed and from 1960 to 1964 indicated that seventy the mother would be left in a worse condi- five percent of the abortions among private tion. The greatest indication can become patients were performed for psychiatric the greatest contra-indication. What is reasons and that abortion for psychogenic gained by an abortion in such circum- indications rose from 13 percent of all stances? An abortion has never been known abortions in 1943 to 87.5 percent in 1963. to cure any mental illness. The best coun- sel is to treat the mental illness and not Another study demonstrates that psychi- destroy the child. atric indications were given in 94 percent of Much is said about the danger of suicide one group of unmarried women but only in in a mentally ill pregnant woman who is 50 percent of a group of married women denied an abortion. There is much talk, and in the year of the rubella epidemic in emotion and hysteria but no factual evi- England, when one would expect a great dence. Ekblad, in Sweden, produced a many abortions because of the danger of study of 382 mentally ill pregnant women congenital deformities, twice as many who threatened suicide if they were not pregnancies were legally terminated upon aborted. He followed them through the single girls as compared to married women pregnancy and for an extended period after and all on psychiatric grounds. delivery and there was not even one suicide. In California, during the first year of the When psychiatric indications are used liberalized statute, 90 percent of the abor- to justify an abortion, they usually amount tions were performed for psychiatric rea- to an attempt at projecting the effect the sons and only 5 percent were performed for continuation of the pregnancy and the birth organic, physical or medical indications. of the child will have on the expectant If one were to take this situation seriously, mother. There is no mental or emotional one would have to conclude that there is illness present at the time of conception. far more psychiatric illness in California HUMAN LIFE AND ABORTION than there is any place else in the world. an abortion, he is frequently making a This statistic reveals an incidence of recommendation on economic grounds, psychiatric illness in relation to organic social grounds, personal grounds and he disease that is far out of due proportion has absolutely no expertise in these areas and this demonstrates how invalid and by reason of his training and experience. non-existent the "psychiatric" indications are. Finally, the psychiatrist, not having studied the pregnant woman, has absolutely The psychiatric indication usually no way of knowing how she will react amounts to a pregnant woman who is un- psychiatrically to the abortion. It is very happy with her pregnancy or what the probable that, with the high incidence of Danes call the Social Insufficiency Syn- reactive depression following abortion, drome-a married woman with one child the woman with the original stress situation who is tired or the worn out housewife who might end up a psychiatric cripple after the has several children and is under stress at abortion whereas, if she allowed the preg- the thought of an additional child. nancy to continue, she could emerge a very None of these merits the label of mental healthy woman mentally and emotionally- or emotional illness. There is no profes- particularly with psychiatric help, if such sional or scientific validity to the projected were considered necessary. guess of the psychiatrist as to the impact on the mental health of the mother if the Scientific Attitudes pregnancy is allowed to go to term. Nothing is accomplished except the deliberate de- If it is scientifically established that, prior struction of the unborn child. The woman, to birth, the fetus is nothing but a wart, who is supposedly so sensitive to stress, a tumor, a blob of tissue, an appendage to should be studied and treated by the the mother, maybe it could be destroyed by psychiatrist but she never is. a termination of the pregnancy. However, if it is scientifically determined that, from Because the psychiatric indications for the moment of conception or implantation, abortion were and are so phony, so which occurs from seven to fourteen days scientifically and professionally lacking in after conception, the fetus has human life, validity, psychiatrists have begun to realize the pregnancy cannot be interrupted be- that they and their science have been cause such would be tantamount to an in- "used" to advance the personal, selfish tentional and deliberate destruction of desires'of conscienceless women and unpro- innocent, human life. fessional doctors and they now, as a group, wish to be totally removed from the re- It is interesting and curious to note that, sponsibility of authorizing abortions for in an age when it is so vitally necessary psychiatric grounds. to be current and relevant, the proponents of legalized abortion, in order to confound The psychiatrist is professionally com- the public and to confuse the issue, insist petent only in the field of mental and emo- on quoting Aristotle and St. Thomas, who tional illness. When he is consulted about believed, in accordance with the pre- 17 CATHOLIC LAWYER, WINTER 1971

Christian science and the developments of what was originally human at conception the thirteenth century, that animation or changed to a non-human form of life during ensoulment did not occur at the moment of the pregnancy and returned to human life conception but was delayed-forty days at birth. No one has ever given any proof for the male and eighty days for the female. of such a mutation and, without scientific evidence, any statement to the contrary Apart from the fact that science has would be merely gratuitous. made great strides since Aristotle and St. Thomas-and we should accept the scien- All agree that there is human life at tific advancement of the twentieth cen- birth-whether that birth occurs after nine tury, if it is at odds with the meagre knowl- months of pregnancy or seven months of edge of the sixth century B.C. or the pregnancy. It would certainly appear con- not-too-sophisticated scientific awareness tradictory that a child would be considered of the thirteenth century A.D.-the ques- to have human life at birth after seven tion of animation and ensoulment has months of pregnancy but would not be con- specific reference to human personhood. In sidered to have human life if it remains in the present issue, we transmit the entire the mother's womb during the eighth and question as to whether or not the fetus is ninth months of pregnancy. a human person and concentrate on the Modern science clearly teaches that the more fundamental and essential issue as to process of birth-the passing from the whether or not the fetus has human life. uterus through the cervix and the vaginal Abortion is the direct, deliberate and canal to the outside world-does not be- intentional destruction of human life-not stow life. Birth is just a bridge between necessarily a human person. the intra-uterine and extra-uterine existence There is no question that there is life -a process by which the fetus, which has immediately after conception-because developed to the point of independence of there is growth and metabolism-both of the mother, can live outside of her. Birth which would be impossible, if there were has nothing to do with the granting or the not life. The important question is what endowing of human life. type of life is present in the fetus. Is the Yet scientists can indicate no point in the life human life? development of the fetus at which, for the We know that the conception results first time, human life is given to the fetus; from the sexual intercourse of two human viability or quickening are known not to beings and the presumption would certainly give life because they presume life. Scien- favor the position that the life they would tists know of no time except conception or transmit would also be human-even from implantation when human life in the fetus the beginning. All agree that, when the could have its beginning. pregnancy has been completed and a child For more specific and precise informa- has been born, that human life is existing in tion, let us consider what evidence the the born child. There is a presumption of anatomists, the physiologists, the embryol- human life at conception and a certainty of ogists, the fetologists, and the perinatolo- human life at birth and no evidence that gists can offer. HUMAN LIFE AND ABORTION

Doctor William T. O'Connell, in sum- moment of conception. Therefore, human marizing the work, from 1908 to 1964, life exists from the very moment of fertiliza- of twenty-four embryologists-all who have tion throughout every day and week of investigated and researched ova or eggs pregnancy. Consequently, any artificial in- that had been recently released-concludes tervention, whereby fetal life is terminated, that the embryologist constitutes the destruction of human life. Doctor O'Connell, in his summary, de- has had to depend on the fact that the clares: start of human life begins with the union of the sperm and ovum, followed by a growth and development that follows a se- The embryo from the moment of concep- quential pattern that is constant. If we tion shows the characteristics of a living, accept the premise that such growth is human being: organization, growth and constant, then we must agree that there metabolism. If these characteristics are is no one particular moment in the devel- present in the earliest studied embryos, opment of an embryo when it changes from then the embryo must be considered as a a non-living, non-human substance into a living, human being, and as such entitled living human being. to the most important right and privilege of all human beings: Freedom to live. The renowned embryologist, Arey, has Professor Ashley Montagu of Columbia described the life-span of man as begin- University states: ning with fertilization and continuing in a long, unbroken chain of constant growth The basic fact is simple: Life begins, not and development until birth is reached. at birth, but at conception. This means that After birth, there is further growth from a developing child is alive not only in the infancy through childhood, adolescence, sense that he is composed of living tissue, but also in the sense that from the moment adulthood and these are followed by old of his conception things happen to him .... age and death. In short, there is an unim- Even though he may be only two weeks peded, continuous process of growth and old, and he looks more like a creature from development from fertilization to age 26 another world than a human being . . . he years. reacts. In spite of his newness and his ap- pearance he is a living, striving human Birth is not the beginning of human life. being from the very beginning. Birth is merely that happening or that A biophysicist at The Lawrence Radia- point in time when human life, which be- tion Laboratory in Berkeley, California, gan in fertilization or at the moment of has noted: "Certain landmarks can be conception, has grown, developed and noted in the continuous transition from matured to the point where it can sucess- single cell to complete human individual fully live outside of the mother. Birth is ... but none represents a point in develop- merely the bridge between life in the womb ment where biological form and function and life in the outside world. If what is of the human individual are suddenly born is human life, then scientists can find added." no period of time during pregnancy when human life had its beginning except at the The eminent geneticist, J. A. F. Roberts, 17 CATHOLIC LAWYER, WINTER 1971 has described the development of human A. William Liley-who together pioneered life as a continuing process: and developed techniques for transpla- cental, intra-uterine blood transfusions to A human being originates in the union of the baby-have declared: two gametes, the ovum and the spermato- zoon. These cells contain all that the new individual inherits organically from his or Because the fetus is benignly protected, her parents. The hereditary potentialities warmed and nourished within the womb, it present in the fertilized ovum are unfolded, was long thought that the unborn must have as cell divisions succeed each other, in an the nature of a plant, static in habit and environment first prenatal and then post- growing only in size. Recently thriough natal, free to vary all the stages within nar- modern techniques of diagnosing and treat- row or wide limits. ing the unborn baby, we have discovered that little could be further from the truth. The fluid that surrounds the human fetus, Doctor Herbert Ratner, a Public Health at 3, 4, 5 and 6 months is essential to both Director, declares: its growth and its grace: The unborn's structure at this early stage is highly liquid, Modern Science regards the embryo as a and although his organs have developed, human being from the moment that the he does not have the same relative bodily male spermatazoa fertilizes the female proportions that a newborn baby has. The ovum to form a 'zygote' . . . . We have head, housing the miraculous brain, is quite rejected the theory that the embryo passes large in proportion to the remainder of through a subhuman stage in the womb. the body and the limbs are still relatively From the moment of Zygote formation, the small. Within his watery world, however characteristics of a highly individuated (where we have been able to observe him human organism are established by the in- in his natural state by closed circuit X-ray termixture and combination of the genes, television set), he is quite beautiful and chromosomes and cytoplasm contributed perfect in his fashion, active and graceful. by the parental human egg and sperm. This He is neither an acquiescent vegetable nor includes not only sex but a whole spectrum a witless tadpole as some have conceived of human traits, both external and internal, him to be in the past, but rather a tiny organic and functional. human being as independent as though he were lying in a crib with a blanket wrapped In presenting the most recent develop- around him instead of his mother. ments in fetology, James C. G. Conniff in The New York Times Magazine, points Doctor Arnold Gesell, founder of the out that, "by five or six days after concep- Clinic of Child Development at Yale Uni- tion the human embryo has grown to about versity, states that, 150 cells. By eight (8) weeks the fetus is recognizably human-with limbs, a heart mental growth is a process of behavior that has been beating for a week or so, patterning [and points out,] even in the limb identifiable sex, and a brain that both bud stage, when the embryo is only four weeks old, there is evidence of behav- produces and receives neuro-hormonal ior patterning: The heart beats. In two signals." more weeks slow back and forth move- ments of arms and limbs appear. Before Two outstanding fetologists-a husband the twelfth week of uterine life the fingers and wife team-Doctors H. M. I. Liley and flex in reflex grasps. HUMAN LIFE AND ABORTION

It is clear that from the studies of child electrocardiogram of the unborn child. At psychologists it can be said that this process this stage also the heart sounds can be de- of mental development which character- tected with new ultrasonic techniques. The izes the ten-year-old child, or the one-year- heart has already been pumping large old child, also characterizes the embryo volumes of blood to the fast growing child who is only one month old. for six weeks. With present day technology, the heart of the child is now monitored All of this scientific information is the during critical periods of the pregnancy by basis for the conclusion of Doctor Herbert special electronic devices, including radio- Ratner: "By the time a woman knows telemetry. Computer analysis of the child's she is pregnant and by the time the average ECG has been devised and promises more abortion is arranged, we are not dealing accurate monitoring and evaluation of fetal with a small mass of cells. We are curetting distress. A number of abnormal electrocar- out arms and legs, heart and brain. This is diographic patterns have been found before truly an intrauterine battered-child syn- birth. These patterns forewarn the physi- drome." cian of trouble after delivery. Analysis of When one views the present state of heart sounds through phonocardiography medical science, we find that the artificial is also being done. distinction between born and unborn has With the new optical equipment, a physi- vanished. As Dr. Liley says: "In assessing cian can now look at the amniotic fluid fetal health, the doctor now watches through the cervical canal and predict life- changes in maternal function very care- threatening problems that are reflected by a fully, for he has learned that it is actually change in the fluid's color and turbidity. In the mother who is a passive carrier, while the future, the physician will undoubtedly the fetus is very largely in charge of the be able to look directly at the growing child pregnancy." using new fiber optic devices (through a The new specialty of fetology is being re- small puncture in the uterus) and thereby placed by a newer specialty called perinatol- diagnose and prescribe specific treatment ogy which cares for its patients from to heal or prevent illness or deformity. conception to about one year of extra- For the child with severe anemia, the uterine existence. The Cumulative Index Medicus for 1969 contains over 1400 physician now gives blood, using an unusual technique developed by Dr. A. Liley separate articles in fetology. For the physi- of New Zealand. This life saving measure cian, the life process is a continuous one, is and observation of the patient must start carried out by using new image intensifier at the earliest period of life. x-ray equipment. A needle is placed through the abdominal wall of the mother A large number of sophisticated tools and into the abdominal cavity of the child. have been developed that now allow the For this procedure the child must be physician to observe and measure the sedated (via maternal circulation) and child's reactions from as early as ten weeks. given pain relieving medication, since it At ten weeks it is possible to obtain the experiences pain from the puncture and 17 CATHOLIC LAWYER, WINTER 1971

would move away from the needle if not patient and gets a more precise idea of the premedicated. As Dr. H. M. I. Liley states: exact age of the child from this fluid. He can diagnose conditions such as the adreno- When doctors first began invading the sanc- genital syndrome, hemolytic anemia, tuary of the womb, they did not know that adrenal insufficiency, congenital hyperane- the unborn baby would react to pain in mia and glycogen storage disease. Some of the same fashion as a child would. But they soon learned that he would. By no means these, and hopefully in the future, all of a 'vegetable' as he has so often been pic- these can be treated before birth. tured, the unborn knows perfectly well when he has been hurt, and he will protest At the time of labor, the child's blood it just as violently as would a baby lying can be obtained from scalp veins and the in a crib. exact chemical balance determined before birth. These determinations have saved The gastro-intestinal tract of the child is many children who would not have been outlined by a contrast media that was pre- considered in need of therapy had these viously placed in the amniotic fluid and tests not been done. The fetal EEG has then swallowed by the child. We know that also been monitored during delivery. the child starts to swallow as early as four- teen weeks. A great deal of work has been done to elucidate the endocrinology of the unborn Some children fail to get adequate nutri- child. Growth hormone is elaborated by tion when in utero. This problem can be the child at seventy-one days and ACTH predicted by measuring the amount of has been isolated at eleven weeks gestation. estradiol in the urine of the mother and The thyroid gland has been shown to func- the amount of PSP excreted after it is in- tion at ten and a half weeks, and the adre- jected into the child. Recent work indicates nal glands also at about this age. The sex that these nutritional problems may be hormones--estrogen and androgen-are solved by feeding the child more directly by also found as early as nine weeks. introducing nutrients into the amniotic fluid which the child normally swallows (250 to Surgical procedures performed on the 700 cc a day). In a sense, we well may be unborn child are few. However, surgical able to offer the child that is starving be- cannulation of the blood vessels in an ex- cause of a placental defect a nipple to use tremity of the child has been carried out before birth. in order to administer blood. Techniques are now being developed on animals that The amniotic fluid surrounding the un- will be applicable to human problems in- born child offers the physician a convenient volving the unborn child. Fetal surgery is and assessable fluid that he can now test in now a reality in the animal laboratory, and order to diagnose a long list of diseases, will soon offer help to unborn patients. just as he tests the urine and blood of his adult patients. The doctor observes the The whole thrust of medicine is in sup- color and volume of amniotic fluid and port of the notion that the child in its tests it for cellular element enzymes and mother is a distinct individual in need of other chemicals. He can tell the sex of his the most diligent study and care, and that HUMAN LIFE AND ABORTION he is also a patient whom science and plines some of which are hardly a half medicine treats just as it does any other dozen years old. New studies in artificial person. placentas indicate that viability will be- come an even This review of the current medical status more relative concept and of the unborn serves us several purposes. children will survive outside of the womb Firstly, it shows conclusively the humanity at even earlier ages than the 20-28 weeks in of the fetus by showing that human life is the past. Fetology, and perinatology are a continuum which commences in the only a few years old as specialties. Obstet- womb. There is no magic in birth. The rics is only sixty years old as a specialty. child is as much a child in those several Fourthly, we have seen that the unborn days before birth as he is in those several child is as much a patient as is the mother. days after. The maturation process, com- This most important but simple truth is menced in the womb, continues through the not recognized in the trial court's opinion. post-natal period, infancy, adolescence, In fact, in all the literature one reads opting maturity and old age. for permissive abortion, this simple truth is Secondly, quickening is a relative con- ignored. There are many doctors in this cept which depends upon the sensitivity of nation who know that the unborn is also the mother, the position of the placenta, their patient and that they must exercise and the size of the child. At the common their art for the benefit of both mother and law, the fetus was considered not to be child. How then will they respond to a alive before quickening and therefore we request for abortion on the most permissive can understand why commentators like grounds? How will they respond to a de- Bracton and Coke placed so much empha- mand on the most permissive grounds? sis on animation and quickening. But mod- What is the next step? Must they respond ern science has proven conclusively that to a law suit compelling them to perform any law based upon quickening is based an abortion? When the physician accepts upon shifting sands-a subjective standard that he has two patients he will have no even different among races. We now know difficulty in the exercise of his art for that life preceeds quickening; that quick- the benefit of child and mother. He will not ening is nothing more than the mother's find the liberal standard (necessary to pre- first subjective feeling of movement in the serve the life or health of the mother) to womb. Yet the fetus we know has moved be vague because he will take the life of before this. In spite of these advances in the child only for grave reasons even under medicine, some courts and legislatures have this liberal standard. continued to consider quickening as the In summary, valid scientific research point when life is magically infused into clearly and unmistakably demonstrates that the unborn. No concept could be further human life begins and exists at conception from the scientific truth. or implantation, when a new human life Thirdly, we have seen that viability is begins with a built-in genetic determination also a flexible standard which changes with which establishes from the very beginning the advance of these new medical desci- the sex, the body structure and frame, the 17 CATHOLIC LAWYER, WINTER 1971 color of skin, hair and eyes and all other -all rights subject to the protection of the hereditary characteristics. From the very law and its courts. Medical science has pro- beginning, the fetus or embryo is as sep- vided the research information and evi- arate and distinct from the mother as a dence whereby the law and the courts could child already born. From conception or make these various findings. If the law and implantation, we have life and the life is the courts consider a fetus to be a person human life-the growth and development with rights-not the least of which is the of the fetus is not from a lower form of life right to life and the right to be born-can to a higher form of life but rather an or- any doctor or any other honest, objective derly form of continuous, unbroken ma- person deny or totally ignore these con- turity of human life. The human life is clusions? actually existing human life-not merely Society or government has a serious re- a potentiality for developing into human sponsibility to recognize and respect the life. The actually existing human life in the life and the right to life of every one of its fetus has a potentiality for further growth members or citizens. They have the added and development but it already possesses duty to protect each one from himself in the totality of human life. A new born baby the event of self-destruction by suicide has the potentiality for further growth and and to protect each one from every other indi- development into a child, an adolescent, a vidual so that all will be free from aggres- young adult, a middle aged person and an sive and unwarranted assault and from the elderly person-but, at birth, it already has loss of life by murder, or manslaughter. the totality of human life, which it will al- ways have. The right to life of the individual is so sacred and the protection over this right to life by society and government is such a Conclusion serious responsibility that our laws and our With all of the above rights of the fetus traditions have accorded to government recognized in law and by the courts, there the right to take the life of one of its citi- can be no doubt that current legal juris- zens only in one situation-when an indi- prudence certainly believes that a fetus has vidual has committed a capital offense, by human life from the very moment of con- unjustly taking the life of another, and then ception, that it is a biological entity sep- only after the accused has been appre- arate and distinct from its mother, that it hended, has been given the right to be rep- has a separate legal existence from her, that resented by counsel of his choosing, has it is a person and enjoys all of the rights of been allowed to face his accusers, has been a person, including the right to sue in the advised of the charges, granted the right of courts for the protection of its rights and cross-examination and the presentation of to institute actions before the courts to his own evidence, has been accorded all recover for any injury, that, as a person defenses recognized by the law, has been with human life, it has the right to be free found guilty by a jury of his peers, has ex- from aggressive assault on its life or person hausted all appeals and is not a candidate and above all, it has the right to be born for clemency. HUMAN LIFE AND ABORTION

The right to life of every individual is losophy of control over the lives of its so precious and is guarded so jealously that citizens and their very right to life with a the government is given only a restricted "quality of life" yardstick and judged that and limited right over the life of its citizens. the Jewish race was an inferior race histor- It may not put any of its peoples to death ically, politically and socially and, thereby, arbitrarily or at will. However, in order to sentenced over 7,000,000 Jews to the death repel the unjust aggression of another na- chambers and crematoria of Auschwitz, tion, it may call upon its men to volunteer Belsen, Dachau and Buchenwald. Seven their service or it may conscript its man- million Jews died because Hitler had con- power and expose them, through the rav- trol over their right to life and had judged ages of war, to the danger of the loss of them to be of inferior quality. their own lives and authorize them to take the lives, if necessary, of members of the No one outside of Hitler's close coterie opposing army. of advisers attempted to justify the delib- erate, intentional and cold-blooded exter- Protection of a country, its prestige and mination of seven million innocent people its inviolability is a corporate self-defense in the gas ovens and concentration camps against a large-scale unjust aggression. of Germany. Every nation and all peoples Personal self-defense, capital punishment viewed this dehumanizing spectacle as the and the resistance of a nation to an unwar- worst tragedy of the human race and this ranted act of aggression and an unjustified evaluative judgment was sustained by the International Tribunal convened attack on its honor are the only justifiable to investi- reasons for a direct assault on the life of an gate the war crimes at Nuremberg. individual. The destroying of innocent hu- All peoples wondered how this could man life in any other set of circumstances happen in such a civilized and cultured or for any other reason is totally uncon- country as Germany. It began simply with scionable and completely without justifi- the first piece of legislation passed by the cation. Reichstag. It was legislation which said One of the differences between a free that life could be seen only from an eco- society and an authoritarian or totalitarian nomic or a sociological or a racist point of state is the freedom of the individual to view. The first laws, enacted under Nazism, plan his own life and to pursue his own never envisioned the final horrendous con- goals of achievement. A dictatorship main- clusions which would be reached in the tains very severe surveillance and control burned and dead bodies of Belsen, Ausch- over its citizens, who become slaves to the witz, Dachau or Buchenwald. But step by ideology and pursuits of the state and their step that position was irreversibly reached freedom from exile and their very right and all of this in the name of legislation, to life is at the mercy of the state. The which had as its foundation, the belief that results can be very dehumanizing. reverence for all life is not required and is not demanded by human society. In Nazi Germany in the 1930's, Adolph Hitler and his lieutenants combined a phi- It is interesting to note, with reference to 17 CATHOLIC LAWYER, WINTER 1971 abortion, the reaction to and position of wanted; to be born into a family that can three eminent German Protestant Theolo- provide him with good housing, good cloth- gians who opposed Hitler at risk of their ing, good substantial and nutritional food, lives: good educational opportunities, good social and recreational Professor Helmuth Thielecke of the Uni- opportunities, a hope for the versity of Hamburg has stated that once future; to be born into a family that impregnation and conception have taken can give him love and affection and a sense of belonging and a sense of security; place "it is no longer a question of whether to be the persons concerned have responsibility born physically strong and mentally alert and without handicap, damage or defect. for a possible parenthood; they have be- come parents." They believe in the "good life" and in "quality life" and they are convinced Professor Karl Barth of Basel has con- that cluded: "he who destroys germinating life every effort should and must be made to kills a man." insure that every child born is born well. However, the quality of life should not be The very prominent Dietrich Bonhoeffer, attained at the expense of the value and who was hanged in a Nazi prison camp, sacredness of every human life; the end, judged that "abortion is nothing but however praiseworthy, does not justify any murder." means used to achieve it. These three theologians were concerned If basic human life, in whatever form that the philosophy of Nazism spurned or circumstances it may be born, is not and rejected the doctrine of the importance respected for what it is-the creation of and sacredness of all human life and had God and the greatest good-and is not concentrated on establishing a questionable considered sacred, the "quality of life" will man-made standard of "quality of life" have no meaning and will not long endure which immediately has to distinguish be- because life becomes a disposable and ex- tween that which is superior and that which pendable commodity, subject to the value is inferior with the obvious resultant that system accepted by the community leader the former must survive and the latter be- or individual, who will be making the ulti- comes expendable and disposable. Such a mate decision to destroy life. norm violates the fundamental tenet that Human life itself is a substance and the all life created by God is good and that "quality" of that life is only an accident. An all life is created equal. Where God does accident can never be considered more not establish, in His own creation, a stan- important than the substance in which it dard of inferiority and superiority, man exists or it modifies. Without life, there can should also resist the urge to separate and never be a "quality of life." This makes life isolate life by using a norm of quality. a much more essential, necessary and im- They who oppose the legalization of portant good than the "quality of life" abortion are not against the great Amer- which will modify it. The "quality of life" ican dream of "the good life" or of being can never be preferred over or before life well born. They want every child to be itself or considered to have greater impor- HUMAN LIFE AND ABORTION tance than the very foundation of life. The the unborn child. They opt for an abortion "quality of life" can never be achieved by with the added remark that, at a later date, the intentional and deliberate destruction when and if the woman wants another of life itself and never exist apart from and child, she can always become pregnant separate from life. A "quality of life" that again. Presuming, for the moment, that she is attained or purchased at the expense of has not become sterile as a result of the life or is recognized as separate from and prior abortion, she can become pregnant superior to life itself will have no meaning again. This may satisfy her needs and or lasting importance. wishes but what about the child whose life was destroyed by the abortion? He doesn't Parents-not the mother alone-have get another chance to be born again; he had the right, even the obligation, to be respon- only one opportunity for life and that op- sible parents. They have a right to deter- portunity was violently removed mine how many children they should have from him in accordance with their financial income, before he could enjoy his great gift. their housing accommodations, their ability This is one further indication that, in the to raise them properly. Responsible parent- discussion of abortion, too much emphasis hood is restricted and limited to the period is placed on the rights of the expectant before conception, when the presence of mother and the rights of the unborn are human life and the right to be born are neglected and ignored. not issues. What about the child that will be born Once conception has occurred, the right into poverty? Should he be allowed to be of the parents or the right of the mother to born into a situation where he may have control her fertility or to decide when a inadequate housing, not the most up-to- child is to be born or is not to be born date clothing, not the best educational and ceases because, then, the right of the con- social opportunities? Let it be said that ceived child to be born and to live super- everyone would hope and want every child sedes and becomes more important than that is to be born in the future to be born their personal rights. A woman's right to into a family that can provide all the basic limit her own fertility is recognizable as a necessities and some of the comforts of relative and qualified right but not as an life. No one wishes to canonize poverty, absolute right. Her right to decide which but it must be admitted that, in the past, child she would give birth to and which many great people in this country came one she will reject through abortion should from humble backgrounds and impover- never be achieved at the expense of delib- ished surroundings and their poverty did erately destroying innocent human life. The not prove to be a handicap. It spurred right to life is far more important than the them on to seek for themselves what their right to control one's fertility and the for- families could not give them and they be- mer must prevail over the latter. came stronger, more mature, more respon- In the problem of the "unwanted" child, sible, more courageous and more sensitive some take a seemingly callous and indif- people by reason of the hardships they had ferent attitude-certainly with respect to to endure. 17 CATHOLIC LAWYER, WINTER 1971

What we are balancing here is the basic such a negative, destructive approach, the and fundamental right of a child to be born problems of poor housing, inadequate food against the inevitable birth into poverty supplies and the absence of educational and hardship. It is our intuition that, and social opportunities will still continue if a fetus were to be given his choice of but millions of human lives will have been being born in poverty or not being born at destroyed. all, he would surely choose to be born into poverty and that the right to be born should Life in the womb has been created by not be denied him because of misplaced God; it is precious; it has a value and an compassion-however well-intended it importance all its own-apart from its might be. Poverty is not the greatest evil in state of health, independent of the circum- the world. The right to be born into comfort stances into which it will be born, separate and luxury-the right to be well born from the convenience and comfort of its should never be purchased or achieved at mother and distinct from her wanting it or the expense of the deliberate destruction not wanting it to be born. Life in the womb of innocent human life. must be respected and honored; its right to continue in existence must be protected; If we have problems with inadequate its inalienable right to be born must be income, poverty, sub-standard housing, in- safeguarded. No one-not even a well- adequate food supply, poor educational meaning physician-should be allowed to opportunities, absence of job opportunities invade the uterine cavity for any reason- -let us marshall all the forces of our soci- ety and let our experts in sociology, eco- however weighty and serious-and snuff nomics, and the environmental sciences con- out, terminate, annihilate or destroy that duct research until they find social solutions human life. The responsibility for the for social problems. This is the responsible achievement and assurance of all of this lies and constructive approach. Let us not try with all intelligent, cultured, civilized per- to solve the social problems by removing sons, with the community and society, with the problem by death. Let us not try to government, with courts and, above all, attack poverty by destroying life. With with the law.