Wednesday, October 26, 2011

The Abortion Stalemate: Can 'I Don't Know' Break It?

When does a fetus become a human being? I don't know. Do you?

A lot of people think they do. We have heard a great deal from them since 1973 and Roe v. Wade. In the process, the two sides have fought pitched battles on a host of issues. They have made little if any progress toward dialogue with each other. Perhaps we should start the discussion over. Perhaps "I don't know" is the place to start.

. . . St. Augustine, in his Enchiridion, suggested that this question "may be most carefully discussed by the most learned men, and still I do not know that any man can answer it." (For more on the variety of approaches to the question, see Justice Harry Blackmun's opinion in Roe v. Wade.)

True, Augustine didn't have access to ultrasound. One might argue that today's medical technology has proven what the ancients could only guess at. But while it has informed the debate to a great degree, it cannot provide a definitive answer, because "becoming human" is not a scientific question but a spiritual or philosophical one. And who can answer any such question definitively? Huffington Post

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