Word of the Week: 02/02/15 - Pro-life

The moral position that human life in all forms has Intrinsic value and an absolute right to existence. Most commonly associated with the abortion debate.

The Abortion debate is both emotive and tricky to discuss within any environment, let alone at School - yet students are often fascinated by its complexity and implications. As a teacher it is especially difficult as one knows that it is an issue that many will have to deal with in their personal lives as they grow up; either personally, with a partner or a friend. It is therefore an issue that needs to be dealt with carefully whilst also not shying away from the realities of the topic.

Students at Berkhamsted were therefore lucky to have the opportunity to attend a symposium on the subject this week - Anne Scanlan of the charity Life came to address the Philosophy Society about the issue of Abortion. I had the task of replying and giving the pro-choice response. Despite being from a charity that wishes to reduce the number of abortions performed in the UK, Ms Scanlan made a very balanced and compassionate case.

First of all she set out the facts and figures for Abortion in the UK and examined the reasons why women seek abortion – this is predominantly for reasons of mental health and the potential damage that having a child might cause to the mother. She then examined the logic of when life begins and if, on the basis that a foetus is alive from the moment of conception and the rest of development is a continuum, is it ever right to have that life terminated? She employed a combination of logical arguments, statistics and anecdotes about the negative effects of abortion on a woman’s mental health to make her case. She dealt sensitively with the most difficult of issues in this topic area; including when a woman falls pregnant having been raped; but certainly did not condemn women who make the choice to abort. She also outlined her role as a councillor for Life where she offers support to women, but no advice or pressure. Her conclusion was that abortion on demand is not the solution to women's equality; rather sex and relationship education, a more compassionate maternity and childcare system and a more open society was the only way to get to the root problems of unwanted pregnancies.

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In response I focused initially on the importance of the mother who is often forgotten in the debate,that the foetus did not have a right over the body of the mother and that no one has a duty to have a child against their will. I then discussed the benefits for society that women having control over their reproduction has bought over the past decades. The idea that a foetus is not a person in the truest sense of the word was developed and that even if one accepts that it is “potential life” this does not give it the right to necessarily become an actual life. I also examined what it would be like to be a country, such as Ireland, with anti-abortion laws; the problem of Abortion Tourism and the rise of illegal abortions or the taking of abortifacients in secret. My argument ended with the idea that one cannot escape the fact that a life is terminated during an abortion, but that the moral judgement had to be that the actual life of the mother takes priority over the foetus and that her right to autonomy outweighs any right the foetus might have.

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Students and staff asked some excellent questions and interestingly spent more time focusing on the weaknesses of the pro-choice position. The talk was extremely well received by the students and one thanked Ms Scanlan after the talk adding that hers was the most coherent argument he had heard to date for the pro-life position. Whilst he was not persuaded, he thought it was good to have heard a set of arguments that were not predicated purely on religion and the existence of a soul within the foetus – as textbooks so often offer.

The talk was videoed and this will be shared with all Y13 and Y12 students via Google Drive