Defending Life

A Moral and Legal Case Against Abortion Choice

Book Details

Discerning Reader Editorial Review

Reviewed 10/07/2008 by James Anderson.

Recommended. A powerful scholarly case against abortion rights from a leading pro-life philosopher.

If the polls are to be believed (at the time of writing), nearly half of the American public are ready to cast their votes for a presidential candidate whose senate record indicates uncompromising support for abortion on demand, even to the point of infanticide. This should be of enormous concern to evangelical Christians. If the candidate in question is elected in November, the pro-choice lobby will rejoice and read the result as evidence that most Americans have no appetite to see the abortion laws tightened up. If he does not win, the pro-choice lobby will redouble their efforts to caricature pro-lifers as misogynist extremists. In either eventuality, Christians ought to prepare themselves to present a well-informed, well-reasoned, and winsome case for the pro-life position in the public arena.

Given that the majority of those who oppose abortion are religious believers, it isn’t surprising to find many non-Christians assuming that the only arguments against abortion are religious in nature, such as arguments from the teaching of Scripture. The fact is, however, that there are compelling arguments for the sanctity of human life from conception that do not depend on ‘religious’ premises (such as the authority of the Bible). Here’s one example: It’s wrong to kill a one-week-old newborn; there’s no morally relevant difference between a one-week-old newborn and a 20-week-old human fetus; therefore, it’s wrong to kill a 20-week-old human fetus. ‘Secular’ pro-life arguments such as these can be appreciated by those who don’t have any serious religious faith and can even prove persuasive to them. That’s not to suggest for a moment that morality doesn’t depend on God or a Christian worldview, for it most surely does. Rather, it’s a recognition that basic moral principles are written on the heart of every human being, whether regenerate or not (Rom. 1:32, 2:14-15), and Christians have every right to appeal to those conscience-engraved principles to promote biblical morality and God-honoring legislation in the civil realm.

To that end, Francis Beckwith’s Defending Life may well offer the most comprehensive and compelling ‘secular’ case against abortion in print today. As the book’s subtitle indicates, Beckwith’s aim is to present both a moral and a legal case: he argues not only that abortion is immoral but also that the Supreme Court decisions responsible for opening the door to abortion on demand are flawed and should be repealed.

Part I of the book deals in detail with some important background issues. Chapter 1 argues against moral relativism: the question of abortion is an objective moral issue that can and should be publicly debated. Chapter 2 reviews and critiques the reasoning behind the two key Supreme Court decisions that in effect introduced and secured the right to abortion on demand at any time before birth: Roe v. Wade (1973) and Casey v. Planned Parenthood (1992). Chapter 3 refutes the notion that the government should take a ‘neutral’ (read: pro-choice) stance on abortion based on a ‘principle of liberty’.

Part II builds the author’s case against abortion. Chapter 4 documents the scientific consensus that human beings come into existence at the moment of successful conception. It also describes in detail the various methods of abortion used today (including the horrific ‘partial-birth abortion’ procedure). Chapter 5 demolishes an array of ‘popular’ arguments for abortion based on appeals to pity and tolerance, most of which simply take for granted that the unborn child is not a full-fledged human person. Chapter 6 contends that human fetuses have no less a right to life than the children into which they develop — a conclusion that resonates with our commonsense views about human life. Faced with compelling arguments for the personhood of an unborn child, some pro-choice ethicists have tried to show that abortion is often justified even though it involves killing a human person, since forbidding abortion would violate a woman’s rights over her body. Chapter 7 is devoted to refuting such sophistry.

Chapter 8 applies the conclusions of the preceding chapters to the more recent debate over human cloning and ‘reproductive liberty’. The bottom line: if a human embryo is indeed a full-fledged member of the human race, then both reproductive and non-reproductive cloning are unethical.

The core pro-life argument that runs through the book is actually very simple. Beckwith provides a summary in the introductory and concluding chapters: “1. The unborn entity, from the moment of conception, is a full-fledged member of the human community. 2. It is prima facie morally wrong to kill any member of that community. 3. Every successful abortion kills an unborn entity, a full-fledged member of the human community. 4. Therefore, every successful abortion is prima facie morally wrong.” Beckwith’s contention is that one doesn’t have to appeal to religious texts or authorities to defend any of the argument’s premises.

I won’t lie: Defending Life is no light read. It’s a sophisticated, scholarly book that interacts with the most influential arguments developed by pro-choice intellectuals. Nevertheless, its central argument is sufficiently clear and concise that it could be articulated by any educated Christian. The book also exposes the bad logic and double-standards of the ‘popular’ pro-choice arguments that Christians encounter all the time in the media and among our unbelieving friends and colleagues. As such, it should be an invaluable resource for any believer who wants to be better equipped to defend a biblical view of the unborn.

No doubt some readers of this review will be aware of Beckwith’s high-profile conversion to Roman Catholicism while serving as president of the Evangelical Theological Society. It would be a great shame if any evangelicals were deterred from purchasing Defending Life on that account. If this were a book about the clarity of Scripture or the doctrine of justification, such concerns would be understandable. But on the question of abortion, Beckwith’s position is no less biblical than that of Norman Geisler, John Frame, or Al Mohler. I therefore have no hesitation in recommending this thorough and compelling defense of an unborn child’s right to life.