Morality is the "differentiation of intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good or right and those that are bad or wrong." (Wikipedia). Like our conscience, our morality is heavily influenced by our family, friends, background/culture, religion and society's views on certain issues. We must always strive to make correct decisions based on our conscience and morals, and when making these decisions we must take into account our free will given to us by God, and our responsibilities for the choices we make. Bioethics takes into account many ethical issues that arise from various situations and are introduced due to technological and medicinal advances. It involves our participation in realizing that we are to live in Jesus' way, knowing right from wrong and making correct and informed moral choices as it not only effects ourselves but those around us. Contemporary bio-ethical issues we face today include abortion and euthanasia. This report is going to discuss the contemporary issue of abortion and analyze the response of the Catholic Church.
Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removing a fetus from the womb through a medical procedure, which involves taking medication to end the pregnancy. It can also be done through a surgical procedure, which involves using medical apparatus to remove the fetus. Abortions are mostly done during the beginning of a pregnancy (7-13 weeks) as during this time period there is lower risk. There are two types of abortions, induced abortions and spontaneous abortions. Induced abortions occur when the mother voluntarily choses to terminate the pregnancy whereas spontaneous abortions also known as 'miscarriages' are involuntary and occur when the fetus is unintentionally removed from the womb. In the year ended December 2013, 14,073 abortions were performed in New Zealand, the lowest number since 1995 (13,652) – stats.
