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Peikoff On Abortion

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The controversy behind the conversation of abortion has spanned a great multitude of years. Some arguments are based out of the sake of personal outlooks, some out of science discussions, but some are rooted in the philosophical questions and stands that the human race takes in this. The late Pope John Paul II wrote on this Evangelium Vitae in 1995, which was responded to by Leonard Peikoff in his article “Abortion Rights Are Pro-Life” in the Huffington Post in 2013. Peikoff challenges with his own philosophical outlook the Pope’s conclusion on abortion that he has arrived at using two premises, using the argument that religious dogma cannot be used as evidence of life. Pope John Paul II’s approach to the conversation is to, rather than with …show more content…

By extension, he does believe in the human soul in embryos as well. John Paul II does, however, note his view to be based in fideism. John writes, “Even if the presence of a spiritual soul cannot be ascertained by empirical data, the results themselves of scientific research on the human embryo…” (Paul II, 1995, page 4) and he also quotes Tertullian: “… it makes little difference whether one kills a soul already born or puts it to death at birth…” (page 4) The Pope can maintain this view solely because more than half of his arguments are based on beliefs, rather than scientifically proven evidence. This author finds no fault in this aspect of his arguments thus, as he is allowed to believe what he may believe, when science cannot back either side of the sole soul …show more content…

Right from the beginning of Peikoff’s article, Peikoff writes, “Abortion rights advocates should not cede the terms ‘pro-life’ and ‘right to life’ to the anti-abortionists… Does she have the right to choose murder? That’s what abortion would be, if the fetus were a person.” (Peikoff, 2013) He does not find fault in the Pope’s decision to back the sixth commandment, rather, with the argument that a fetus is an innocent living being. Peikoff again strikes at the Evangelium Vitae’s points with the idea that during the first trimester, the embryo is not yet human, but is simply a lump of cells. He declares, “… only the mystical notions of religious dogma treat this clump of cells as constituting a person.” (Peikoff,

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