Case Made As To Why There Should Be No Political Support For Any Act Of Abortion

"In short, a pregnant woman who is faced with the grim reality of impending death short of the use of, e.g., chemotherapy or hysterectomy, may use these and other morally licit medical treatments an procedures for the reasonably grave reason of saving her life, as long as the death of her unborn child is not directly intended as the end (or purpose) of using these procedures, or is the means by which her life is saved, but only allowed or permitted o happen as an accidental by-product of these medical actions, and no other reasonable medical treatment is available. However, the directly intended death of an unborn child by means of procured abortion remains morally indefensible - even to save the life of the mother, or for the best of intentions, or under very difficult circumstances - even in the case of incest or rape.

There is too much at stake to leave the lives of so many millions of innocents - both women and unborn children - up to mere persnal whimsy or political bartering. The social fibre in this country has been shattered and stretched to the limit. Presented here is at least a common moral means of considerably reducing the rancor and misinformation swirling about these abortion debates. The proper understanding and application of the principle of double effect offers a commonly accepted, morally legitimate, objectively grounded basis for clarifying the important moral distinctions which need to be made within these very tragic and dificult moral dilemmas - one on which most of us could reasonably agree."

- rest at www.lifeissues.net/writers/irv/irv_08natlaw.html