St. Augustine's Arguments On Abortion

As Dr. Crockett so eloquently stated earlier in the semester, “Martin Luther and John Calvin suckled from the breast of St. Augustine”. This statement holds true through today. As such, the contemporary thinkers of today’s natural law and political thought suckle from the breasts of Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas and even Machiavelli. This paper will engage contemporary scholar’s arguments on abortion, just war, and civil disobedience, link them to the classical antecedents and discuss the Machiavellian position on each issue. Abortion: noun abor·tion \ə-ˈbȯr-shən\ The termination of a pregnancy after, accompanied by, resulting in, or closely followed by the death of the embryo or fetus - Merriam Webster In his book,

On abortion in chapter three, Robert says, “The scientific evidence establishes the fact that each of us was, from conception, a human being. Science, not religion, vindicates this crucial premise of the pro-life claim. From there it is no avoiding the conclusion that deliberate feticide is a form of homicide.” (George 73). Dr. George also notes that today’s debate on abortion is not about cases in which the life of the mother is at stake, but rather about elective or selective abortion. “Only in the most extraordinary circumstances today do women and their families and physicians find it necessary to consider a procedure that will result in fetal death as the only way of preserving maternal life. In any event, the political debate about abortion is not, in reality, about cases of this sort; it is about “elective” or “social indication” abortions, viz., the deliberate destruction of unborn human life for non-therapeutic reasons” (George 73-74) In chapter twelve of his book, Dr. George takes more of a religious view on abortion. Throughout the chapter he shreds liberal Catholics who support abortion.

Augustine through St. Augustine’s definition of justice. St. Augustine defines justice as “justice; by which we give each person his due” (Deane 83). If we accept Dr. George’s premise that the blob of cells within a pregnant women is indeed a human being, we have must extend to them human rights and the virtues that come with such. If we also accept justice as being how St. Augustine defines it, to abort or murder an unborn human being would an injustice, as it would be giving to someone, an unborn baby in this case, something that it does not deserve. Therefore, abortion is not just as it gives to someone something that they are not due. In conclusion, George argues that feti are in fact human beings, shocking I know as no human being has ever given birth to a turtle, a kangaroo or anything not distinctly human. As such, they should be treated with the dignity, respect, and most importantly justice given to other human beings. Therefore, abortion is innately unjust as it does onto someone not what they are owed, as no one could argue that an unborn baby is guilty of any