Discussion on When Does Life Begin? It’s Not So Simple

  In this article, the whole discussion is revolving around the fact, when life begins in the womb of a woman. For many, it may be quite simple to give any verdict, but in real terms, it is very hard to give a verdict because different religions, as well as, scientific ethicists don’t see it as an agreed point. Everyone is having their own opinion on fetal personhood. The article began with an interesting incident, where two pregnant women along with an ultrasound technician were invited to the House committee meeting of the Ohio Republicans, and the purpose of this whole activity was to determine the heartbeat of the embryo so that abortions can be banned from that point onwards. But overall, it is not an easy thing to determine, what is happening in the womb of a woman, and how fetal personhood will be determined. They wanted to get the proof of heartbeat to say that the beginning of a new life is started, so, it should be banned to do abortion in such cases.

            The experiment of the Ohio Republicans has not been able to reach the Senate floor for legislation. After 2011, around 14 states have proposed similar kinds of heartbeat ban bills, and even a bill was presented in the House of Representatives, but none of them were succeeded. The people who support these bills say that ultrasound is good enough proof for these bills, but there is also a group, which believes that more concrete evidence is needed. So, there is no agreement on this, when lie begins in the womb of a woman. Different scientists have clearly said that they don’t know about it at all. Some others say that life begins in different stages, so they can’t pick one point in particular, because a series of landmark moments goes to form life in the womb. Different religious sections have their own views on this topic.

            The American Baptists along with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America believe that abortion should not be considered equal to murder. Presbyterians have a view that people can make it a personal choice by being careful in taking such decisions. The Unitarians have a more open viewpoint in this regard as they say that life along with the quality of life should be considered. As far as Muslims are concerned, the confusion is there also because they also don’t have concrete evidence to say when life begins. Some of them say that life begins after 40 days and some talk about 120 days. Many of the Muslim scholars do allow women to do abortions in case of rape but within 4 months’ time. Some others also allow women to continue with abortion if they have concrete evidence about the disability of a child. The Bible authors are also not certain about this thing that when life begins, and this mystery continues (STRAUSS, 2017)

Reference of When Does Life Begin

STRAUSS, E. (2017). When Does Life Begin? It’s Not So Simple. Retrieved April 26, 2020, from https://slate.com/human-interest/2017/04/when-does-life-begin-outside-the-christian-right-the-answer-is-over-time.html