LIFE Lines

In this series we are looking at, and considering, some of the main arguments made in favour of abortion.

“Abortion has been shown to reduce crime rates”

In this series we are looking at, and considering, some of the main arguments made in favour of abortion.

“You’re not really pro-life unless...”

This is one of the strangest and most underhand of the arguments used to discredit pro-lifers. The thrust of this argument is that:

1. People who oppose abortion say that they do so because they place a high value on human life.

A flurry of excitement surrounded the recent announcement that mitochondrial disease could soon be a thing of the past. A new technique, which combines principles of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and cloning, promises to rid children of the root cause of this terrible disease, defective mitochondria inherited from their mother’s egg. Yet, while the hopes of families at risk of having children with mitochondrial disease will undoubtedly be raised, this cloning technique raises some extremely serious ethical problems of its own.

The affliction of mitochondrial disease

In China's Guangdong province, Communist officials are seeking to forcibly sterilise 10,000 people, in a "crackdown" on those who break family-planning rules. Does that sound like a brutal violation of human rights?

In this post we promised to look at some of the key arguments in the abortion debate. Here is number two:

“You object to abortion, but realistically the only way to reduce abortion is by more and better sex education, which you also object to. This is inconsistent.”

Pop star Lady GaGa has been discussing sexual health:

"...Or,’ chips in Gaga, ‘and I can’t believe I’m saying this – don’t have sex. I’m single right now and I’ve chosen to be single because I don’t have the time to get to know anybody. So it’s OK not to have sex, it’s OK to get to know people. I’m celibate, celibacy’s fine.’"

Later she adds:

Speaking to the Catholic Herald, David Cameron says that "I think that the way medical science and technology have developed in the past few decades mean that an upper limit of 20 or 22 weeks would be sensible". He also restates the Tories' opposition to legalised euthanasia.

In this post this post we promised to look at some of the key arguments in the abortion debate. A little later than planned, we look at the first such argument: “Abortion ends only a potential life”.

This question really gets to the heart of the matter. At the heart of the pro-life view is a simple process of reasoning:

1. It is wrong to end the lives of human beings.
2. Abortion ends the lives of human beings.
3. Therefore abortion is wrong.

LIFE is breathing a sigh of relief that schools will be able to teach what they like, how they like and when they like, on the heated subject of sex and relationships, after the dramatic failure of key clauses in the Government’s Children’s, Schools and Families Bill.

The highly experienced and well-regarded journalist and author Peter Hitchens has been travelling in rural China, investigating the consequences of the one-child policy - and his conclusions make sobering reading: