Abortions
Abortion is no minor dispute--40 to 60 million
abortions occur each year worldwide. In India in 1992 there were 600,000 recorded
abortions and an unknown number unrecorded. There are approximately 26 million live births
per year in India. In the USA, one-third of pregnancies end by abortion--98% for elective,
non-medical reasons. Rumania holds the world record for abortions: in 1965, there were
1,115,000 abortions out of a total population of 19 million, an astounding four abortions
per live birth.
The abortion debate raging so intensely in
most of the world today is essentially a theological dispute over the definition of life.
Most conservative branches of the world's religions hold that life begins at conception,
concluding therefore that killing of a fetus is a form of murder. Liberal members of many
religions and those with no religion hold that until the fetus can exist independently
outside the womb, it is incorrect to consider it a full human life.
[Excerpted From Hinduism Today April
1996 - Volume 18, Number 4 with permission], Please visit
Hinduism Today site. |
