Complex Issue
Or
Moral Wrong?

Homework Assignments:
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(due Mon., 1/25) Parent Interview &
Reflection Paper (see instructions on sheet)
(due Tues., 1/26) Read article by
Mahony & write 2 prgh reflection
(due Weds., 1/27) Read “How to
Prove…” article & write opinion
(Thurs., 1/28) Slightly oversized “quiz” on notes & readings

The One Relevant Question…
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“What is the Unborn?”
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Why?…
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It answers every possible objection…

Most common objections:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
“Abortion is a private matter between a woman and her God.”
“Many poor women cannot afford another child.”
“If abortion is restricted, women will die from back-alley abortions.”
Women should not be forced to bear an unwanted child.”
“You shouldn’t force your morality on women.”

Most common objections:
1.
“Abortion is a private matter between a woman and her God.”

Most common objections:
2. “Many poor women cannot afford another child.”

Most common objections:
3. “If abortion is restricted, women will die from back-alley abortions.”

Most common objections:
4. Women should not be forced to bear an unwanted child.”

Most common objections:
5. “You shouldn’t force your morality on women.”

“What is the unborn?
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“If the unborn are not human, no justification for elective abortion is necessary. But if the unborn are human, no justification for elective abortion is adequate.”
-Gregory Koukl

7 weeks…

8 weeks…

12 weeks…

14 weeks…

16 weeks…

20 weeks…

What is the “true picture” of abortion?
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The pro-choice often treats with contempt the pro-lifers’ practice of holding up to our faces their disturbing graphics… But how can we charge that it is vile and repulsive for pro-lifers to brandish vile and repulsive images if the images are real? To insist that truth is in poor taste is the very height of hypocrisy.

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Besides, if these images are often the facts of the matter, and if we then claim that it is offensive for pro-choice women to be confronted with them, then we are making the judgment that women are too inherently weak to face a truth about which they have to make a grave decision. This is a view unworthy of feminism.”
--Naomi Wolf, The New Republic feminist & abortion rights activist

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“If something is so horrifying we can’t stand to look at it, perhaps we shouldn’t be tolerating it.”
--Gregg Cunningham
Executive Director,
The Center for Bioethical Reform

7 weeks…

11 weeks…

22 weeks…

So, what is the unborn?
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The Catholic Christian position:
Human life is a continuum beginning at conception and ending at natural death.

The Pro-Life position…
 is scientifically sound
 is philosophically sound

Why scientifically sound?
1.
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The unborn entity is genetically distinct from its parents ( Possesses active (inherent) capacity to develop into embryo>infant>adult)
Not “fertilized egg”, but self-integrating human organism
No change in substance/nature, only in form
Not potential human, but human w/ potential

Why scientifically sound?
2.
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The unborn has human parents! (and each living thing produces after its own kind –principle of biogenesis)
To find out what a thing is, ask “What are its parents?”
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Human parents can only produce human offspring

If you reject the arguments,
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1.
You must explain two things:
What the unborn actually is
2.
How two human beings can create a separate being that is later becomes one not human, but

Why philosophically sound?
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The unborn does differ from newborn, but are those differences morally relevant?
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What are the differences?
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S.L.E.D.: Size
Level of development
Environment
Degree of dependency