An Overview on the Abortion of Life and Negation of Death

Authors

  • Luka Janeš Faculty of Philosophy and Religious Studies, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

Keywords:

abortion, life, death, mereology, orientation, pluriperspectivism, transdisciplinarity

Abstract

It may be noted that, in recent years, public and private discussions on abortion are being conducted and that they are becoming increasingly heated. Furthermore, they extend into various narrative–interpretation sequences which range from the question of body ownership, the status of the fetus between a biological and a spiritual entity, the freedom of choice in giving birth, to appeals of conscience, demographic and anti–demographic arguments the uprightness of medical experts for performing gynecological procedures. However, it seems that in this emotionally charged debate, perhaps the fundamental question is usually missing — that of the mereological (Potrč) contextualization of the scale of life and death as a starting point within the debating platform. Therefore, this article will attempt to determine the semantic level, on the one hand of revitalization, and on the other of lethality, present in the mother’s decision to have a medically induced abortion, and in the circumstances that stipulate it. At the same time, an effort will be made to determine what “life” is and what “death” is for a person in the complex and intricate situation of a making the decision to abort a child — on the transdisciplinary horizon of the evaluation, setting sociological, psychological, philosophical and bioethical segmentation. Also, in order to elaborate this, above all, complex, tabooed bioethical issue, in particular, to elaborate it in a sufficiently and dignified pervasive way, using the hypothesis of pluriperspectivity for a methodological intentional (Brentano) orientation.

Published

2023-10-12