ABORTION

QUESTION: Hello Pastor I was here reading about abortion and was wondering what the Bible says about Abortion. Any thoughts?

Sandra Nicoule

RESPONSE: In my experience of handling questions about life, religion and faith, I have noticed that believers in the professional world tend to want to subject even their professionalism to what the Bible says. While this is a good practice for a believer to always consult his faith on every matter, we must understand that God has not exclusively and conclusively revealed himself in the Bible alone. God has manifested himself in nature, in all creation and in every discipline that we have studied in our respective fields of professionalism.

I have said this because the person who asked this, is my daughter who is a nurse, it is from this context that I expected her to know better. It is my prayer that when we all go to school, we should understand that we have not gone to a secular place and neither have we necessarily gone to a sacred place when we go to church. God is omnipresent and he is the same professor who lectures us at Church a different subject about him, his things, people and us and he still is the same professor in the school classrooms.

When a Christian doctor asks me what the Bible says about Abortion, I suspect someone who wants to dispute what he has learnt as a medical doctor using his faith. We professional people must understand that there shouldn’t be a contradiction between proper academics and proper faith. There is a non-contradicting relationship between FAITH AND SCIENCE, and it is the role of every truly educated fellow to ensure that their academic education is at peace with their faith-world. Any conflict or contradiction between the two is a sign of either 1-immature revelation or 2-of being wrong.

Now to respond to your Question my dear Daughter here is what I would say:

• What does the Bible say about abortion? NOTHING.
• What did Jesus say about abortion? NOTHING.
• Doesn’t the Bible say that if you have an abortion, you’ll go to hell? NO.
• Does the Bible say it is alright to Abort? NO
• Should People (Christians or not) Abort? It depends.

When is a Human Being a Human Being?

Both the Bible and science in a summarized formula agree that the process that brings a human being into being is a three-stage process. There must be a Conception, a Pregnancy and a Birth. To science a human being is a different thing at every stage, however, to the Bible he is still the same human being through all the three stages. We read about conception (Psalm.51:5), the womb (Psalm.139:13), and birth (Luke.1:31; 2:6-7) in terms of actual life rather than mere potential.

The Scientific View

Dianne N. Irving, M.A., PhD wrote: “The question as to when the physical material dimension of a human being begins is strictly a scientific question, and fundamentally should be answered by human embryologists, not by philosophers, bioethicists, theologians, politicians, x-ray technicians, movie stars, or obstetricians and gynaecologists. The question as to when a human person begins is a philosophical question. Current discussions on abortion, human embryo research (including cloning, stem cell research, and the formation of mixed-species chimaeras), and the use of abortifacients involve specific claims as to when the life of every human being begins. If the “science” used to ground these various discussions is incorrect, then any conclusions will be rendered groundless and invalid”. (International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 1999, 19:3/4:22-36). The question of when is a human being, a human being so that we can conclude that abortion is taking human life is one that ought to be launched at the pad of humanness. Who is a human being? Is it just physical material or psychology as well? How we answer these questions puts both Faith and Science in their rightful places on the matter.

Science breaks down the process in five stages: “gametogenesis,” = the process that converts primordial germ cells (primitive sex cells) into mature sex gametes in the male (spermatozoa, or sperms), and the female (definitive oocytes). “spermatogenesis,” = the origin and development of the sperm cells within the male reproductive organs, the testes. “oogenesis,” = the production and maturation of oocytes, i.e.; the female gametes derived from oogonia. Oogonia (derived from primordial germ cells) multiply by mitosis and become primary oocytes. “fertilization,” = the procession of events that begins when a spermatozoon makes contact with a secondary oocyte or its investments, and ends with the intermingling of maternal and paternal chromosomes at metaphase of the first mitotic division of the zygote. “zygote,” = the beginning of a new human being (i.e., an embryo). The expression fertilized ovum refers to a secondary oocyte that is impregnated by a sperm; when fertilization is complete, the oocyte becomes a zygote.” or an “embryo,”

The fusion of the sperm (with 23 chromosomes) and the oocyte (with 23 chromosomes) at fertilization results in a live physical human being, a single-cell human zygote, with 46 chromosomes the number of chromosomes characteristic of an individual member of the human species. Scientifically anything can happen at every stage of development but scientists do not argue we have lost human life but rather specifically what is mentioned is what is lost.

The Biblical View

Turning to the word of God one realizes that a human being is not even what we can see, associate with or even touch. A human being is an individual in the incomprehensible divine mind even before their physicality in any form pre-sperm formation-gametogenesis (Jeremiah 1:5, Galatians 1:15, Ephesians 1:3-4, Genesis 25:22-24-two nations in the womb). From a divine point of view, a human being is a human being at the point he occurs in the divine mind and that we don’t know when. For where there is eternity (forever) you cannot have a when.

This human being in the mind of God, however, causes problems to biblical anthropology where a human being is a triune of Body, Soul and Spirit (1Thessalonian 5:23, Hebrews 4:12, 1Corinthians 2:9-11). We question whether the human being in the knowledge of God (Jeremiah 1:5) is in bodily form or not but again the scripture responds to that when it says: ‘Before I formed thee’. In other words in the incomprehensible mind of God, man is bodiless but still a man. It is the same question we ask the scientific world whether the embryo has a soul and spirit? Science will consider this a nonsensical question since soul and spirit are philosophical and not scientific entities. However, we have to understand that in later stages of pregnancy the baby in the womb has philosophical actions and reactions.

So if a human being is whole in the knowledge of God and conception, fertilization and birth are just but the scientific process of ushering the pre-existent human being to Earth, then Biblically any tampering or interruption of the process is an offence to God. In this respect, aborting the process might be equated to murder (Exodus 20:1, 13). This interruption might be accidental (Exodus 21:22-25) or it might even be scientific and procedural (Exodus 1:15-16). If this is the case, then why did I say that:

‘It Depends’

First of all, from the off-set, I would like to say that you cannot legislate virtue. For the Law to endorse or prohibit abortion is to shoot itself in the foot. Abortion is not a moral issue as it is a life and death matter. Medically, the embryo is treated based on the threat it casts on the entire human being (pregnant mother). Abortion can be done in the case of an ectopic pregnancy (when the fertilized egg finds itself in the Fallopian tubes). There are numerous medical conditions (like lunacy, sickness, etc.) where the consent of the victims or their relatives is consulted and abortion is justified.

Again, if someone chooses to get pregnant, we cannot dismiss the same volitional abilities post-pregnancy. To dispose of an embryo is an understandable evil than carrying it for 9 months and throwing a whole baby in the latrine.

Their failure to address this issue is puzzling if the embryo deserves the same moral respect as human persons.

Similarly, IVF (In Vitro Fertilisation), at least as currently practised, would appear to be morally objectionable regardless of whether some embryos produced by this procedure are used in research. In the IVF process embryos are intentionally created to sponsor success, however, as they are created it is known to the creators that majority of these will be discarded eventually. How can we accept a process that consigns entities that supposedly have the status of human persons to the rubbish bin? It is therefore important to understand that abortion can be justified or condemned based on the reasons. The morality or the immorality of the act depends on the life secured and not on the lives lost.

God bless you I invoke TRUTH, WISDOM, and FAITH (2Tim 2:7) 

Priest M.I.T WHITE (+256-775 822833 for further inquiries)

iTiS Well of Worship Fellowship (John 4:24)

QUESTIONING TO BELIEVE, BELIEVING TO LIVE