Q: I am a Catholic and part of an online forum where we hold a few debates once and a while. One that's come up is the subject of abortion. One of the people arguing in favor of it is a Catholic and she claims that since America allows freedom of religion, Christians and Catholics should not try to 'force' their beliefs on others. How can I argue that abortion is a serious crime?A: First off, freedom of religion is the freedom for one to practice any religion they want, since abortion isn't a religious practice I don't see how it falls under freedom of religion. Our country was founded on basic Christian morals, "One nation under God..." And God's list of basic morals is found in the Ten Commandments, one of which is "Though shall not kill".
If this argument isn't good enough than there is the overwhelming evidence that human life begins at the moment of conception. In that instant human DNA that is unique from the mother is created.
"Embryo: The developing individual between the union of the germ cells and the completion of the organs which characterize its body when it becomes a separate organism.... At the moment the sperm cell of the human male meets the ovum of the female and the union results in a fertilized ovum (zygote), a new life has begun.... The term embryo covers the several stages of early development from conception to the ninth or tenth week of life."
[Considine, Douglas (ed.). Van Nostrand's Scientific Encyclopedia. 5th edition. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1976, p. 943]
So if we know that life begins at the conception of a human embryo, and that abortion destroys the embryo, then we can say that abortion is the destruction of a human life. And that my friend is considered murder.
Paul
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