Life. It is an indisputable scientific fact that each and every abortion stops a beating heart and already measurable brain waves.
“O people, if you have any doubt about resurrection, (remember that) we created you from dust, and subsequently from a tiny drop, which turns into a hanging (embryo), then it becomes a fetus that is given life or deemed lifeless. We thus clarify things for you. We settle in the wombs whatever we will for a predetermined period. We then bring you out as infants, then you reach maturity. While some of you die young, others live to the worst age, only to find out that no more knowledge can be attained beyond a certain limit…” (22:5)
God obviously does not discriminate depending on the place of residence of the human. To God, a person is a person whether he/she is in the uterus (the initial place of residence) or outside of it. He is simply describing the first stages of creation of every human being from the point of conception, and explaining that this human can die while still in the uterus, at any point in time, or be born and die outside of the uterus, at any point in time At no point in the uterus is it any “less” of a human than outside of it. It might not look like a typical human, but in the correct scientific sense he/she is every bit as human as any older child or adult. In the following verses of the Quran, reference is made to a child without differentiating whether the child is inside or outside the womb:
We enjoined the human being to honor his parents. His mother bore him arduously, gave birth to him arduously, and took intimate care of him for thirty months… (46:15)
We enjoined the human being to honor his parents. His mother bore him, and the load got heavier and heavier… (31:14)
“You shall not kill your children due to fear of poverty. We provide for them, as well as for you. Killing them is a gross offense.”
(17:31,6:151)
With the knowledge that we now have, it is imperative that we understand the last verse clearly. God is stating that abortion is murder and therefore a gross offense.
Finally, something from the Bible. The prophet David had this to say in Psalms 51:5
“Surely I have been a sinner from birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” |
Schematic representation of events of ovulation, fertilization, and implantation. (After Dickinson RL: Human Sex Anatomy, 2nd ed. Baltimore, Williams & Wilkins, 1949)
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And again in Psalm 139:13-16, “You created my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your workmanship is marvelous. I know that full well. You were there while I was being formed in utters seclusion. Your eyes saw my unformed body. You scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe. Every day was recorded in Your book.”
Reading these Psalms, which were revealed to David before the revelation of the Quran, reinforces the fact that God’s laws, and therefore His system, are unchangeable. Every facet is covered clearly, leaving no room for doubt.
ARGUMENTS FOR ABORTION ANSWERED
1. It is uncertain when the soul comes into the body. Therefore, up to a certain time, abortion is all right.
God has assigned a soul for each human. A certain, definite number of humans are going to come to the earth and be tested, and they already have souls that are assigned to them. God talks about creating the human from “clay” or “dust” and then from a drop. This human already has a soul assigned. The point to understand and emphasize is not when this assigned soul comes to the body (it is already assigned), but what constitutes “life.” Living in this world of matter, we have a “life span” (during which we need to redeem ourselves). We do not have a “soul span.” The assigned soul cannot die and is eternal. So, in discussing abortion, in which you commit the act of murdering the body, you are basically stating that the assigned soul is released and “alive and well” at God. |
We can continue the discussion for the sake of debate, and say that we are uncertain as to when the soul gets assigned. Suppose you are driving at night and you think that the dark figure ahead on the road may be a child, or the shadow of a tree. Do you drive into it, or do you put on the brakes? Shouldn’t we give the benefit of the doubt to life? Otherwise, we are saying, “this may or not have a soul, therefore it is all right to destroy it.”
2. It is uncertain when human life begins.
This is not true. Medical text books and scientific reference works consistently agree that human life begins at conception. (a) Dr. Keith L. Moore’s text on embryology, referring to the single cell zygote, says “The cell results from fertilization of an oocyte by a sperm and is the beginning of a human being.” He also states that each one of us started life as a cell called a zygote. (b) Dr. Louis Fridhanler, in the textbook “Biology of Gestation” refers to fertilization as “that wondrous moment that marks the beginning of a new life.” (c) Professor Hymie Gordon of the Mayo Clinic in an article states “ By all the criteria of molecular biology, life is present from the moment of conception.” (d) The International Symposium on Abortion, after exhaustive review of data by geneticists, embryologists and pathologists, released the following statement: ”The changes occurring between implantation, a six-week embryo, a six-month fetus, a one-week old child, and a mature adult are merely stages of development and maturation.”
Please read 22:5, 23:12-14, 40:67, 31:14, 46:15, Psalms 139:13-16, and Psalms 51:5. |
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