On this page you will find:
Fertility Treatments
Euthanasia
Suicide
Abortion
The Afterlife
Fertility Treatments
IVF – surgically removing an egg and fertilising it in a lab before replacing in the mother’s womb
AIH – insemination using partners sperm
Surrogacy – carrying a child for another woman
Parental Order – legal certificate allowing you to have a baby via surrogacy
DI – using donors sperm
What's the problem?
IVF involves doctors fertilising a woman's eggs with a man's sperm in a test tube. The resulting embryo is then put in the mother's womb to grow. However, doctors might need many attempts before an embryo actually implants. They therefore freeze embryos for future use.
The frozen embryos belong to the couple but, according to a law passed in 1991, they cannot be store for more than five years without the persmission of the couple. 1996 was the fifth anniversary of the new law, so clinics all over the country contacted embryo owners to see if they wanted the clinic to keep or destroy the embryos. Many couples had lost contact with their clinics or their records were out of date, so on 2nd August 1996, 3000 frozen embryos were due to be destroyed.
The Catholic church led a campaign against the thawing; it thought each embryo had a God-given right to life, that life should be preserved at all costs. It called on Catholic couples to offer to adopt the frozen embryos and for the woman to have an embryo implanted in her own womb. The Church claimed 130 couples volunteered.
Other protesters went to court to force the Official Solicitor, who has a legal duty to protect the interests of children, to save these embryos. He refused to intervene: "I can only act on behalf of a life in being; until a child is delivered it does not have an independent legal persona."
There was more to this debate than meets the eye. The argument was not just about these frozen embryos. It was part of a much wider debate among Christians about how to react to the rapid development of embryonic research.
Some Christians argue that embryologists are 'playing God'. In creating embryos at all they are behaving unethically. Other Christians welcome such developments because they can help give childless couples a child. Yet they still worry where all this will lead and want to ensure that such research does not devalue human life.
Euthanasia
- There must be persistent, informed and voluntary requests by a patient who is aware of all the alternative treatments
- There must be relentless suffering
- There must be an independent medical appraisal by at least one other doctor supporting the decision
- After death, the doctor must complete an exhaustive questionnaire and inform the coroner, who will visit with the body to view and verify the facts. The Ministry of Justice decides on the basis of this report whether or not to prosecute the doctor.
- People have been given dominion over other living things by God (Genesis)
- God wants people to have quality of life. If someone has no quality of life euthanasia might be acceptable.
- God is love. Stopping suffering is a loving thing to do. So euthanasia could bring more glory to God than keeping a suffering person alive.
- People have been given free will by God. They should be able to use this free will to end their own lives.
- There may be a purpose to suffering; people may learn from it.
- Life is sacred. Euthanasia destroys life. So it must be wrong.
- The Holy Spirit lives in Christians. Euthansia destroys Gods temple (I Corinthians 3:16-17
- It is more compassionate to care for the dying then to speed up death
- Ten commandments - Do Not Kill!
Suicide
Many of the above arguments can be used in conjunction of the issue of suicide as well. Some denominations, such as Roman Catholics, believe that suicide is the same as murder, as a human being is losing his/her life, and so will result in that individual being punished in eternity. However, some Christians understand that suicide is a desperate act by people in severe anxiety, usually with mental health issues that mean they cannot see any alternatives.
For more information, follow the link:
http://www.samaritans.org/
Abortion
When is abortion legal in Britain?
Before 1968 abortion was illegal in Britain.
Since the 1968 Abortion Act, abortion has been legal if:
- two doctors agree it is needed
- it is carried out on registered premises
- the baby is not yet capable of surviving (the legal term is 'viable', meaning able to survive outside of the mother's womb if cared for medically)
- the life, health or mental health of the mother is at risk
- an existing family will suffer if the pregnancy continues
- there is a reasonable chance that the baby will be born handicapped
The number of abortions has risen steadily.
In practice, the risk to the mother's mental health has been interpreted to include distress the mother may feel regarding the pregnancy or motherhood. Some people argue that this creates a 'abortion on demand' culture in Britain. Some would even say that abortion is not treated as contraception.
The law allows medical staff to abstain from performing abortions; however, some who have have found their jobs at risk.
Key questions for Christians:
- When does life begin?
- Does a foetus have a God-given right tok life?
- Who has the right to choose whether a foetus lives or dies?
- Should people have free will to make such decisions?
Follow the link to learn more about foetal development:
http://www.health24.com/journey/Pregnancy/3277-3281-3400,35504.asp?cturl=&imgid=&showme=1
Christian perspectives
Similarly to te debate on euthanasia, there are arguments for and against abortion. These fall into the categories of pro-coice (for) and pro-life (against) arguments.
Pro-life supporters see abortion as murder (Do not kill) and argue for the sanctity of life. In 1968 Pope Paul VI published his authoritative statement Humanae Vitae (On Human Life). It restated as an absolute rule for all Catholics that abortion is wrong
The Afterlife
Heaven
In Christian theology, heaven is the dwelling place of God and the angels, and ultimately of all the redeemed, wherein they receive their eternal reward. In the bible it is conceived as above the sky.
It is the distinctive Christian hope and belief that all faithful disciples (and not merely exceptional human beings) will, through Christ’s victory, eventually reign with Him in glory. This may be thought of as attained at the end of history, but it is also believed that before the general resurrection some at least of the redeemed are with Christ, i.e. in Heaven.
According to Catholic doctrine, these are the souls who, having died in a state of grace and been purged of their stains in purgatory, have passed to heaven, where they enjoy perfect bliss, but such souls await re-union with their bodies until the general resurrection of the dead.
A description from the point of view of a liberal Christian:
The purpose of the Church is to show people the way to salvation, and therefore the path to Heaven, or unity with God in this life and the next. We continue to pray and to work that all people have the opportunity to hear and receive the Gospel, which we believe is the way to salvation and therefore eternal life. Those who reject God in this life have already chosen for themselves a Hell. But who are we to judge the hearts of others? If a person has been moved in the least way to consider the Gospel and come nearer to God, God in His mercy can and we pray will respond to that act of faith. Similarly, we can only pray that God will respond to those who reach out to Him through other faith traditions. It is not our job to condemn those of other faiths, nor should we judge the sincerity of another's response to the Gospel, but to pray for God's mercy to them as well as to us. The choice is ours, to answer God or reject Him - to choose for ourselves between Heaven and Hell. Ultimately we have the free will to choose
Hell
In Christian theology hell normally signifies the place or state to which unrepentant sinners are held to pass, by God’s final judgment, after this life. According to traditional Scholastic theology, souls in hell experience both the exclusion of God’s presence and loss of contact with Him, and a certain form of torment. Modern theology stresses that hell is but the logical consequence of ultimate adherence to the soul’s own will and rejection of the will of God which necessarily separates the soul from God, and hence from all possibility of happiness.
Arguments For An Eternal Hell:
Among the common arguments advanced for the existence of an eternal hell are these:
1. Words and pictures in the New Testament imply finality.
2. The doctrine of hell has been believed for a long time by eminent theologians.
3. Offers of pardon are restricted to the present world.
Arguments Against An Eternal Hell:
Commonly presented arguments against the existence of an eternal hell include:
1. Words and pictures in the New Testament imply death and destruction (i.e., annihilation).
2. "Eternal punishment" can refer to results that are eternal, not an eternal process.
3. Vindictive justice is not compatible with the God of love and compassion revealed in the New Testament.
4. The punishment does not fit the crime (i.e. non-eternal sin and disbelief).
5. Hell contradicts the Christian assertion of the final victory of God over evil
Purgatory
In Catholic theology, the state or place of punishment and purification where the souls of those who have died in a state of grace undergo such punishment as is still due. This doctrine was not found before the 12th Century, but elements of it are much older, especially the notion that not all souls are condemned to hell or are worthy of heaven at the moment of death. Belief that sins can be purged in an afterlife and that the process can be accelerate by prayer is found in many writings, including passages from the Bible and theological works. Aquinas taught that any unforgiven guilt of sin can be addressed through penance. He wrote that the smallest pain in purgatory is greater than any pain borne on Earth, but that it can be tolerated due to the certainty of the person’s admittance into Paradise. Moreover, these souls can be helped by the prayers of the living, and these set the context for indulgences.
Indulgences are the remission by the Church of the temporal penalty due to forgiven sin, on the merits of the virtue of Christ. The practice of granting indulgences presupposes that sin must have a penalty either on earth or in purgatory even after the Sinner has been reconciled with God.
That an indulgence may avail for those in purgatory several conditions are required:
• The indulgence must be granted by the pope.
• There must be a sufficient reason for granting the indulgence, and this reason must be something pertaining to the glory of God and the utility of the Church, not merely the utility accruing to the souls in purgatory.
• The pious work enjoined must be as in the case of indulgences for the living.
The Church of England condemns the Roman Catholic doctrine of purgatory, but the existence of an intermediate state of purification, and the value of prayers for the dead are accepted by many Anglicans and some modern Protestant theologians. Recent Catholic discussions of purgatory are characterized by restraint and leave open many questions, such as whether souls in purgatory can pray for the living.
