Overview

The Catholic Church has always opposed abortion, but--contrary to popular belief--not always for the same reasons. This tightly argued, historically grounded study sets out to demonstrate that a “pro-choice” stance, now held by a significant minority of Catholics, is as fully justified by Catholic thought as an antiabortion view. A Brief, Liberal, Catholic Defense of Abortion argues that the current Catholic antiabortion stance is justified neither by modern embryology nor by ancient church teachings. Combining up-to-date information on fetal development with a thorough grasp of the works of the church’s early thinkers (such as Sts. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas), Daniel A. Dombrowski and Robert Deltete expose crucial contradictions between the early and the modern Church’s views of abortion.

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9780252073977

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Reviews

Calmly reasoned, carefully explained, and terribly important. Garry Wills, Chicago Sun-Times A model of reasoned discourse about an inflammatory issue. I cannot think of a Catholic --or any thoughtful person -- who would not benefit from it. -- Anthony Padovano, Conscience

Calmly reasoned, carefully explained, and terribly important. --Garry Wills, Chicago Sun-Times A model of reasoned discourse about an inflammatory issue. I cannot think of a Catholic--or any thoughtful person--who would not benefit from it. -- Anthony Padovano, Conscience This well-argued and well-researched book makes an excellent contribution to the debate on abortion. . . . [The authors] bring new light to the history of Catholic thought and a fresh perspective that will benefit participants on all sides of the abortion controversy. --Choice The two scholars offer [this volume] not as 'free-floating theists' but as Catholics retrieving a complex history of debate on the subject. . . . In tracing the changing Catholic views, the scholars defend the moral permissibility of abortion in the first trimester and offer a sexual ethic that focuses on issues of respect and agapic love rather than procreation, marriage, or even heterosexuality. --Nina C. Ayoub, Note Bene, The Chronicle of Higher Education Helpful for the ways in which it nuances the church's response to abortion, illuminating how the grounds of its opposition have changed from perversity to ontology. . . . A critical retrieval of Augustine and Aquinas supports their position that fetuses are not necessarily persons. --Donna M. McKenzie, Religious Studies Review A valuable book, which argues that a pro-choice position on early abortion is at least as consistent with the Roman Catholic tradition as the strict anti-abortion stance of contemporary Church leaders. --Ethics Dan Dombrowski and Robert Deltete's excellent book on a liberal Catholic defense of abortion definitively shows that the current teachings of the Roman Catholic Church--that all abortion is murder from the first moment of conception--is not in accord with Catholic tradition over more than eighteen centuries. A careful study of the Catholic tradition of such major theologians as Thomas Aquinas, in the context of modern embryology, in fact, supports the pro-choice position in the first two trimesters. The authors argue that, at the very least, the morality of abortion in the early months should be an open and not a closed question for Catholics. --Rosemary Radford Ruether, Georgia Harkness Professor of Applied Theology, Northwestern University and author of Women and Redemption: A Theological History and Sexism and God-Talk: A Theological History

""Calmly reasoned, carefully explained, and terribly important."" --Garry Wills, Chicago Sun-Times ""A model of reasoned discourse about an inflammatory issue. I cannot think of a Catholic--or any thoughtful person--who would not benefit from it."" -- Anthony Padovano, Conscience ""This well-argued and well-researched book makes an excellent contribution to the debate on abortion. . . . [The authors] bring new light to the history of Catholic thought and a fresh perspective that will benefit participants on all sides of the abortion controversy.""--Choice ""The two scholars offer [this volume] not as 'free-floating theists' but as Catholics retrieving a complex history of debate on the subject. . . . In tracing the changing Catholic views, the scholars defend the moral permissibility of abortion in the first trimester and offer a sexual ethic that focuses on issues of respect and agapic love rather than procreation, marriage, or even heterosexuality.""--Nina C. Ayoub, Note Bene, The Chronicle of Higher Education ""Helpful for the ways in which it nuances the church's response to abortion, illuminating how the grounds of its opposition have changed from perversity to ontology. . . . A critical retrieval of Augustine and Aquinas supports their position that fetuses are not necessarily persons.""--Donna M. McKenzie, Religious Studies Review ""A valuable book, which argues that a pro-choice position on early abortion is at least as consistent with the Roman Catholic tradition as the strict anti-abortion stance of contemporary Church leaders.""--Ethics ""Dan Dombrowski and Robert Deltete's excellent book on a liberal Catholic defense of abortion definitively shows that the current teachings of the Roman Catholic Church--that all abortion is murder from the first moment of conception--is not in accord with Catholic tradition over more than eighteen centuries. A careful study of the Catholic tradition of such major theologians as Thomas Aquinas, in the context of modern embryology, in fact, supports the pro-choice position in the first two trimesters. The authors argue that, at the very least, the morality of abortion in the early months should be an open and not a closed question for Catholics.""--Rosemary Radford Ruether, Georgia Harkness Professor of Applied Theology, Northwestern University and author of Women and Redemption: A Theological History and Sexism and God-Talk: A Theological History

Author Information

Daniel A. Dombrowski, a professor of philosophy at Seattle University, is the author of Babies and Beasts: The Argument from Marginal Cases and other books. Robert Deltete, a professor of philosophy at Seattle University, has published on the history and philosophy of physics and cosmology.

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