Yesterday, from the Vatican, there was issued a Common Declaration of Pope Benedict XVI and the Archbishop of Canterbury His Grace Rowan Williams. The declaration states that "There are many areas of witness and service in which we can stand together" and lists several such as peace in the Holy Land, the poor, materialism, the environment etc. I was surprised to see the following included:"promoting respect for life from conception until natural death"In Abortion - A Briefing Paper, issued by the Church of England’s Mission and Public Affairs Division in February 2005, we are given a summary of the Anglican position on abortion:
"The Church of England combines strong opposition to abortion with a recognition that there can be strictly limited conditions under which it may be morally preferable to any available alternative."The Briefing quotes the teaching of the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
"Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognised as having the rights of a person among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life."and then contrasts the Anglican position with this teaching. The Briefing quotes a 1980 statement from the Board for Social Responsibility:
"In the light of our conviction that the foetus has the right to live and develop as a member of the human family, we see abortion, the termination of that life by the act of man, as a great moral evil. We do not believe that the right to life, as a right pertaining to persons, admits of no exceptions whatever; but the right of the innocent to life admits surely of few exceptions indeed."Surely if we are talking of the right to life of the innocent, this admits of no exceptions? The words "few" and "indeed" in this statement are simply window-dressing once the principle has been allowed that in some cases it is legitimate to kill an innocent person.
The Briefing tells us that
"The Church of England rejects the oversimplification of the debate into 'pro choice' and 'pro life'."You always know where we are headed when someone says that an absolute moral position is an "oversimplification".
The Briefing quotes the 1993 Synod which said that
"The number of abortions carried out since the passage of the Abortion Act 1967 is unacceptably high."and states as the current view of the Church of England that
"The abortion law needs to be applied more strictly and the number of abortions carried out drastically reduced."As ever, when people say that there are "too many abortions", my immediate question is "How many abortions is just about right?"
It is always helpful in such a discussion to take some moral norm that is currently accepted as an absolute and apply the same reasoning. Rightly, there is a general consensus that it is wrong (absolutely) for adults to have sex with children. How would it look if someone said that the ban on sex with children admits of very few exceptions and only under strictly limited conditions? Would you trust someone in your home if they said that the rejection of paedophilia was an oversimplification? Would it sound right if a Church leader said that there was just too much sex with children and that it should be drastically reduced?
In truth, this statement of the position of the Church of England on abortion is, as ever, a compromise so that people of widely differing views will all be able to subscribe to it. Every politician who votes for a liberalisation of the abortion law will tell you that they are against abortion, that it is a very grave decision, always a last resort; but that there are some circumstances in which we have to allow it. If abortion is the killing of an innocent child, there can be no exceptions to the inviolable right of that child to life. To allow exceptions is not to be a little bit less pro-life on a sliding scale between pro-choice and pro-life, it is to overturn the absolute right to life of the innocent human child.
8 comments:
Well, it's unfortunate how low our expectations of our Anglican brethren are, but based on those low expectations there have been some good signs recently- both this mention in the joint statement, and the CofE's backing of reducing the allowable period for abortion.
Believe me, even such small signs are unimaginable for both the Episcopalian Church and the Anglican Church in Canada.
Dear Fr Tim,
You forget how easily the CofE makes statements that are not what they first appear. So "respect for life" for an Anglican does not exclude IVF, embryo experimentation, abortion or euthanasia, so long as they are done with 'respect', and in appropriate circumstances. Lord Harries, the former Bishop of Oxford, is continuing to pursue that line in behalf of the Church of England at the HFEA, for example.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Excellent post, Father.
No church survives when it tries to reconcile its laws to secular, worldly things.
The very problem you set has recently been raised. A senior Police Officer has indicated that sex with children at certain ages is of a different moral value than sex with younger children. This is the thin edge of the wedge process that Orhodox Catholic Anglicans have seen applied to their Church in matters of faith and morals for decades.
It is not our problem alone, as indicated above it is a popular societal model also.
Be assured that many many Anglicans reject this sort of 'teaching' in their Church and challenge it daily. For reference see the SPUC literature at my Church.
Very recently the Independent showed whole front page picture of an elephant foetus in the womb.What a caring society we are,- we woudnt dare think of aborting a preborn elephant!I suppose an Anglican 'theologian' could show why that would be a horrible crime whilst it's OK to abort 180.000 humans each year.
One thing that may (and I state this with some hesitation) have been overlooked, for the purpose of debate, is that there is within the realm of Catholic Moral Theology an explicit doctrine of double effect that may be the allusion made by the Church of England in their official statements to "strictly limited conditions under which it may be morally preferable" to terminate a pregnancy. To wit, in certain medical circumstances (such as ectopic or tubal pregnancy) where the development of the foetus cannot continue (physically), the pregnancy is deemed "incompatible with life" (a medical definition) and the pregnancy must be terminated in order to secure treatment for a life-threatening condition of the mother. In this case, the termination is not a contraceptive procedure, but a medically necessary procedure to save the life of a mother, the "forseen, but unintended consequence" of which is the termination of the pregnancy. Unfortunately, this is, in fact, an abortion, and within the legal language required by official statements, must be counted as such. Thus, I postulate that less than being an equivocation, the official statements of the Church of England could be viewed as allowing within the realm of discourse a principle that has been recognized as a valid part of the Catholic moral tradition for centuries (if not millenia). It may be worthwhile to pray for our doctors, physicians and OB/GYNs that, under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, and the pleadings of Our Sweetest Lady, Theotokos, they might research the medicine that would allow for an alternative to such procedures that would allow the safety of both mother and child. Until then, it may be worthwhile to look at the whole of the Catholic position on the issue, and judge where and what the "few exceptions indeed" might be.
The double effect doctrine means that if you could save the life of the infant, you would. (As you say, perhaps with advances in technology, this might be possible in the future.) An abortion is different because it has not succeeded unless the baby is dead.
I appreciate the attempt to put the best possible slant on the "few exceptions" but in practice, Anglican clergy take from this statement an authorisation for various positions including a fairly liberal pro-choice position.
Nice post Fr, you get me rambling too! As to te Jones's talking about "Orhodox Catholic Anglicans", eh?!
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