Wall L Lewis, Brown Douglas
Departments of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, United States.
Department of Surgery, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, United States.
J Bioeth Inq. 2024 Dec;21(4):751-769. doi: 10.1007/s11673-024-10352-0. Epub 2024 Aug 22.
The struggle over legal abortion access in the United States is a religious controversy, not a scientific debate. Religious activists who believe that meaningful individual life (i.e., "personhood") begins at a specific "moment-of-conception" are attempting to pass laws that force this view upon all pregnant persons, irrespective of their medical circumstances, individual preferences, or personal religious beliefs. This paper argues that such actions promote a constitutionally prohibited "establishment of religion." Abortion policy in a secular state must be based upon scientifically accurate biology, not unprovable theological presuppositions. The scientific facts regarding human pregnancy do not support the position that personhood begins with fertilization-at which point a pregnancy does not yet even exist. Abortion policy should regard the embryo/fetus as part of the pregnant individual's body until delivery. We argue that individual "personhood" only begins when the latent potentialities of the fetal nervous system are actualized in the newborn after delivery. The paper argues that instantiating non-scientific beliefs concerning embryonic/fetal "personhood" into the law as the basis for abortion policy establishes a state-sponsored religion. The protection of religious liberty requires that abortion be decriminalized. Abortion should be treated like any other medical procedure and regulated similarly. To protect both religious freedom and sound medical practice, individual legal personhood should be recognized as beginning only at birth.
在美国，围绕合法堕胎权的斗争是一场宗教争议，而非科学辩论。那些认为有意义的个体生命（即“人格”）始于特定“受孕时刻”的宗教活动人士正试图通过法律，将这种观点强加于所有孕妇身上，而不顾她们的医疗状况、个人偏好或个人宗教信仰。本文认为，此类行为促成了宪法所禁止的“确立宗教”。世俗国家的堕胎政策必须基于科学准确的生物学知识，而非无法证实的神学假设。关于人类怀孕的科学事实并不支持人格始于受精这一观点——此时甚至还不存在怀孕状态。堕胎政策应将胚胎/胎儿视为孕妇身体的一部分，直至分娩。我们认为，个体“人格”仅在胎儿神经系统的潜在能力在分娩后的新生儿身上得以实现时才开始。本文认为，将有关胚胎/胎儿“人格”的非科学信念作为堕胎政策的基础写入法律，就确立了一种由国家支持的宗教。保护宗教自由要求将堕胎合法化。堕胎应被视为任何其他医疗程序，并进行类似的监管。为了保护宗教自由和良好的医疗实践，应承认个体的法律人格仅在出生时开始。
