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Entries Tagged as 'Feticide'

The Foundations of the Alexandrian Argument against Feticide Part V

April 15th, 2009 7 Comments

Having previously addressed whether causing the death of a woman is a capital offence, I will now examine how Exodus 21:22-25 views feticide. Is Feticide Condemned as a Minor OffenceHarrison argues that the reference to a fine in v 22 suggests that the law considers feticide did “not constitute a major crime at that time”.[1] [...]

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The Foundations of the Alexandrian Argument against Feticide Part IV

April 13th, 2009 No Comments

See the previous posts beginning here for the context that this post falls in. In this post I will address whether the punishments outlined in Exodus 21:22-25 are qualitatively different beginning with whether the death of the woman is a capital offence. In my next post I will ask if the text considers feticide a [...]

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The Foundations of the Alexandrian Argument against Feticide Part III

April 11th, 2009 3 Comments

This is the next installment in my series examining whether the Septuagint (LXX) translation of Exodus 21:22-25 is a mistranslation of the Hebrew Masoretic Text (MT). See the previous posts beginning here for the context that this post falls in.Is the Harm to the Woman or the Fetus?The RSV renders the word ason> in v [...]

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The Foundations of the Alexandrian Argument against Feticide Part II

April 9th, 2009 9 Comments

In my previous post I gave a brief introduction to The Alexandrian Argument against feticide and noted Harrison’s claim that this argument is based on a mistranslation of the Hebrew by the LXX. In this post I will look at whether the passage refers to a miscarriage. Does the Case Deal with a Miscarriage?The RSV [...]

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The Foundations of the Alexandrian Argument against Feticide Part I

April 8th, 2009 2 Comments

Implicit, if not overtly explicit, in much historic Christian moral reflection on feticide is a simple three-premise position. Firstly, that there is a divine law prohibiting homicide, the killing of a human being without adequate justification; secondly, a formed conceptus, a fetus, is a human being; and thirdly, that in all or most cases of [...]

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Marquis, Pruss and the Twinning Argument

March 23rd, 2009 23 Comments

Augustine writes, And therefore the following question may be very carefully inquired into and discussed by learned men, though I do not know whether it is in man’s power to resolve it: At what time the infant begins to live in the womb: whether life exists in a latent form before it manifests itself in [...]

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South Park on Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research

March 22nd, 2009 3 Comments

The flawed reasoning, commonly found in most media commentary on human embryonic stem-cell research, was not lost on the makers of South Park. I love how brutal South Park are in exposing PC rubbish; see the YouTube clips below. [There are two, fast loading, clips below; they are linked so that both will autoplay] Hat [...]

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Alexander Pruss on Marquis’s Transitivity of Identity Argument

March 20th, 2009 5 Comments

Matt gave an overview of his scepticism here that moral status is attained at conception, citing Don Marquis’ transitivity of identity argument placing moral status beginning at segmentation (14-21 days post-conception). Matt is agnostic as to whether moral status is acquired at conception but argues that unless there are good reasons for thinking the pre-segmentation [...]

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Some Thoughts on Human Embryonic Stem-cell Research

March 12th, 2009 51 Comments

Given Barack Obama’s reversal of the ban on federal funding for research on new lines of human embryonic stem-cells, I thought I might add my own thoughts on the issues around stem-cell research. My thoughts are somewhat tentative; largely because, unlike many in the media, I don’t see the issues as clear cut or as [...]

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The Catholic Church, Excommunication and Abortion for Child Rape

March 10th, 2009 53 Comments

The Catholic Church has excommunicated the mother, who arranged an abortion for her 9 year old daughter, who was pregnant with twins as a result of rape by her stepfather. There is a heap of controversy over this in the blogosphere, the most insane of which is the Hand Mirror claiming this is evidence the [...]

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