After-birth abortion

After-birth abortion is the proposed murder of a newborn baby and is an issue currently being pushed by some feminist groups. These feminist groups seek to legalise the murder of neonates. Currently the focus is on babies born with abnormalities but history has shown that if this is legalised then it will experience scope creep and eventually render the murder of unwanted babies as lawful.

A paper on the topic by Alberto Giubilini & Francesca Minerva2 had this to say:

In spite of the oxymoron in the expression, we propose to call this practice ‘after-birth abortion’, rather than ‘infanticide’, to emphasise that the moral status of the individual killed is comparable with that of a fetus (on which ‘abortions’ in the traditional sense are performed) rather than to that of a child. Therefore, we claim that killing a newborn could be ethically permissible in all the circumstances where abortion would be. Such circumstances include cases where the newborn has the potential to have an (at least) acceptable life, but the well-being of the family is at risk. Accordingly, a second terminological specification is that we call such a practice ‘after-birth abortion’ rather than ‘euthanasia’ because the best interest of the one who dies is not necessarily the primary criterion for the choice, contrary to what happens in the case of euthanasia.

External Links

• Research paper by Alberto Giubilini, Francesca Minerva
• Daily Telegraph
• Slate
• Reddit
• Christian perspective
• Virginia law