The process of life and abortion
09/03/2008
- Opinión
These questions were asked a while ago. I gather the answers here:
1. How would you define the concept of "life"?
The subject "life" has been the object of many studies, especially from new biology, chaos theory and the science of complexity. The Darwinian view which studied life only from the perspective of living organisms and the biosphere has been superceded. Today the discussion of life includes its cosmic, chemical and physical assumptions, the quantum consideration of energy fields and networks without which life cannot be understood. As Stephen Hawking says in his book A Brief History of Time: "[everything in the universe] is finely adjusted to make possible the development of life. For example, if the electric charge of the electron had been only slightly different, stars either would have been unable to burn hydrogen and helium, or else they would not have exploded." In one way or another, life would not have been able to exist.
The current research trend is to see life as an expression of the entire evolutionary process. When a certain level of complexity is reached and being far from equilibrium (a certain level of disorder in a given order), life emerges as self-organization of matter. Whenever this happens, in whatever part of the universe, life emerges as a cosmic imperative. This is the main thesis of Christian de Duve, winner of the Nobel prize in biology, in his famous book Vital Dust. Human life is seen as a subchapter of the chapter of life.
To understand life, therefore, one must observe the entire evolutionary process with its previous conditions that for a long time made possible and still make possible the appearance of life today. This does not define life; it only attempts to explain how it emerged. It itself is a mystery even for scientists themselves.
2. When speaking about the beginning of life, the Catholic Church states that life begins at the moment of conception, when the egg and the sperm meet. This being the case, women who choose to have an abortion are accused of having committed a crime against a potential life. How do we evaluate the definition of life from the perspective of the embryo or fetus and from that of the woman?
If we include life in the global evolutionary process we cannot content ourselves with this vision assumed by the Church in present days. In the Middle Ages it was not so; for Thomas Aquinas humanization began forty days after conception. For its internal ethics, the Church may establish the moment for the conception of human life, but it should be aware that it is entering into a field in which it does not have particular competence, the field of science. If we view life as a cosmic process that culminates in the fertilization of the egg, then we should care for all the processes needed for the emergence of life, such as the environmental and social infrastructure. Everything that comes together for life to emerge should be the object of caring by everyone. All beings, especially living beings, are interdependent. One cannot think of human life apart from the broader context of life in general, the biosphere and the ecological conditions that sustain the whole entire process. Such knowledge is rarely invoked in the current debate.
Also, we must understand human life as a process. It is never finished. The genetic code, which goes through various phases, continues to develop slowly, until the conceived being acquires relative autonomy.
Even after we are born, we are still unfinished, since we have no specialized organ to ensure our survival. We need the care of others, work on nature to guarantee our survival. We are always in genesis. This entire process is human, but it can be interrupted in one of its phases. That is to say that an interruption is produced in a process that tends towards human fullness, but that has not come to its end.
Abortion can be placed in this framework. We should protect the process as much as possible, but we should also understand that it can be interrupted for random reasons or by a human decision. This is not exempt from ethical responsibility, but one should take into account the procedural nature of the constitution of life until it reaches its autonomy. It is not an attack on the human being as such, but on the process that eventually will make a human being.
(Free translation from the Spanish provided by Anne Fullerton. Done in Arlington, VA in cooperation with Refugio del Rio Grande, Texas).
1. How would you define the concept of "life"?
The subject "life" has been the object of many studies, especially from new biology, chaos theory and the science of complexity. The Darwinian view which studied life only from the perspective of living organisms and the biosphere has been superceded. Today the discussion of life includes its cosmic, chemical and physical assumptions, the quantum consideration of energy fields and networks without which life cannot be understood. As Stephen Hawking says in his book A Brief History of Time: "[everything in the universe] is finely adjusted to make possible the development of life. For example, if the electric charge of the electron had been only slightly different, stars either would have been unable to burn hydrogen and helium, or else they would not have exploded." In one way or another, life would not have been able to exist.
The current research trend is to see life as an expression of the entire evolutionary process. When a certain level of complexity is reached and being far from equilibrium (a certain level of disorder in a given order), life emerges as self-organization of matter. Whenever this happens, in whatever part of the universe, life emerges as a cosmic imperative. This is the main thesis of Christian de Duve, winner of the Nobel prize in biology, in his famous book Vital Dust. Human life is seen as a subchapter of the chapter of life.
To understand life, therefore, one must observe the entire evolutionary process with its previous conditions that for a long time made possible and still make possible the appearance of life today. This does not define life; it only attempts to explain how it emerged. It itself is a mystery even for scientists themselves.
2. When speaking about the beginning of life, the Catholic Church states that life begins at the moment of conception, when the egg and the sperm meet. This being the case, women who choose to have an abortion are accused of having committed a crime against a potential life. How do we evaluate the definition of life from the perspective of the embryo or fetus and from that of the woman?
If we include life in the global evolutionary process we cannot content ourselves with this vision assumed by the Church in present days. In the Middle Ages it was not so; for Thomas Aquinas humanization began forty days after conception. For its internal ethics, the Church may establish the moment for the conception of human life, but it should be aware that it is entering into a field in which it does not have particular competence, the field of science. If we view life as a cosmic process that culminates in the fertilization of the egg, then we should care for all the processes needed for the emergence of life, such as the environmental and social infrastructure. Everything that comes together for life to emerge should be the object of caring by everyone. All beings, especially living beings, are interdependent. One cannot think of human life apart from the broader context of life in general, the biosphere and the ecological conditions that sustain the whole entire process. Such knowledge is rarely invoked in the current debate.
Also, we must understand human life as a process. It is never finished. The genetic code, which goes through various phases, continues to develop slowly, until the conceived being acquires relative autonomy.
Even after we are born, we are still unfinished, since we have no specialized organ to ensure our survival. We need the care of others, work on nature to guarantee our survival. We are always in genesis. This entire process is human, but it can be interrupted in one of its phases. That is to say that an interruption is produced in a process that tends towards human fullness, but that has not come to its end.
Abortion can be placed in this framework. We should protect the process as much as possible, but we should also understand that it can be interrupted for random reasons or by a human decision. This is not exempt from ethical responsibility, but one should take into account the procedural nature of the constitution of life until it reaches its autonomy. It is not an attack on the human being as such, but on the process that eventually will make a human being.
(Free translation from the Spanish provided by Anne Fullerton. Done in Arlington, VA in cooperation with Refugio del Rio Grande, Texas).
https://www.alainet.org/es/node/127754
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