Religion & Law

Michael Perry is quite right to acknowledge and encourage everyone on MOJ to engage in the debate ? hopefully, a rigorous, respectful, and honest dialogue ? about the moral and legal status that should be accorded pre-born human beings.  Michael is also to be thanked for advancing the conversation by acknowledging what was settled by biological science long before Roe v. Wade, namely, that the victim of abortion is a human being (understood simply as a descriptive as opposed to a normative category).  Although this being may (at the time that he or she is dismembered inside his or her mother?s womb) lack certain characteristics found in human beings at later stages of development, this does not alter the essential kind of being that he or she is.

Unfortunately, acknowledging this fact is hardly commonplace, even among circles of so-called intellectuals, including, sadly, the President.  While the motivation behind refusing to concede this point is understandable from a political and strategic point-of-view (that is, as a matter of rhetoric), it frustrates the cause of genuine dialogue.  If those who have an interest in the practice of abortion (both supporters and opponents) were to follow Michael?s example, then the more challenging questions that Michael raises and that some authors have attempted to address could be examined in earnest.