Salient. Official Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 44 No. 5. March 30 1981

Catholic Church Attitudes Contradictory

Catholic Church Attitudes Contradictory

The Roman Catholic Church in particular, insists on calling a foetus 'an unborn child', a human being complete with legal rights from the point of conception onwards, and yet shows up the contradiction in its thinking by denying that the foetus has a 'soul' and refusing to bury it in consecrated ground.

We would never deny that the foetus is potentially a human being, but that does not mean we should lose sight of the difference between our rights as women and the potential rights of the developing foetus. The humanity it has is abstract, and cannot be compared with that of the pregnant woman without devaluing her life, her needs and aspirations.