Our first session after the Spring Break was given by E Wei on the 'Integrity of Life' - on the Church's stand towards abortion. We were first given two videos showing actual abortion procedures, followed by discussion questions on how we felt about abortion after watching those two clips. The clips showed the raw nature of abortions, bringing us to a realisation of the actual brutality of it. E Wei went on to present to us the definition of abortion and the methods of abortion at the different stages of pregnancy, as an elaboration on how cruel abortion is. Some of these methods include the suction aspiration, which is inserting a suction curette into the womb to tear and suck the baby out into a bottle at an early stage, and the partial birth abortion, which delivers the baby's entire body except for the head, decapitating and killing it.
The Church's stand to this is clear: we support life. Life begins at conception, when an embryo is no longer just a simple cell from his or her father or mother but a combination of both, with his or her own growth, and no one has a right to terminate this life. After much discussion, we recognized that women who undergo abortions do so under complex and most probably emotionally traumatic situations, such as rape or incest, and we would never be able to fully comprehend nor guess at their situation, emotions and the difficulty of choice they have to make. We can never ever judge them, as we do not have the right to do so, and will fully give them any support we can provide for them to make the right choice, which is to not abort. Abortion is an inherently bad choice, and we condemn this act as sin. However, we do not condemn the sinner, and we should never sideline nor condescend women who have made this decision to abort.
Many pro-choice activists argue that women who undergo abortion due to rape and incest suffer a lot of emotional trauma and so they should be allowed to end their suffering by undergoing abortion. Does this mean that people suffering from depression should be allowed to take their lives as part of ending the suffering? Catholics recognise suffering as part of life, and that our value should not compromised for the sake of avoiding or terminating our own suffering.
We also learnt about the Principle of Double Effect, which states that even though the Church opposes all direct and intentional killings of the child, it does not condemn procedures which result in the loss of the child as a secondary effect, such as miscarriage due to medical procedures necessary for the mother's health.
This session brought us in touch with some of the many moral issues that our society grapples with, which is, sadly, the mere definition of life and our integrity on it. I am sure most of us felt a stir in our hearts, whether in coming to a sad realisation that this society is selfish, or whether in finding our own voice and resolution in this matter.
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