Essay Two - Chapter One: Christianity and the Crisis of Culture

Essay Two: The Right to Life

Chapter One: Why we must not Give up the Fight

"What is man that you should be mindful of him? Mortal man, that you keep him in mind?" (Psalm 8:4)

The question of the right to life for life that has been conceived and not yet born is a decisive question. To present all the seemingly logical reasons why the problem of abortion ought not be taken so seriously, or even fought over is to neglect the fundamental element that builds our societies: man. If you are not beginning an argument by first going to its source, then all philosophies and ideals founded on that argument are vain-glory. 

There are those who despair of a solution and remain on a superficial level. Siting responses such as:

• The legal approval of abortion has not changed much of our private lives or the life of society. 
• Each can act in accordance with his conscience. 
• A woman who doesn't want an abortion isn't compelled to have one. 
• Women who have abortions would have had them even if it were illegal, and this way they at least have medical attention.

Man's very existence is a gift. So if a man exists he ought to be mindful of his own frail mortality. To have a society ordered by justice would begin with this concrete truth. Man is mortal. So to deal deathly blows upon those conceived in the womb, is not only filled with the basest form of injustice, but is the weapon by which "man loses his own identity." (p60) 

There are many passages where God stakes his claim on man as made in His image. Giving each man his worth and dignity. This inalienable dignity of man made in the image of God sets us apart from the rest of creation. The attack on the right to life is also an attack on the dignity of man.