Regulations Concerning Nascitutrus and Abortion in Modern Secular Legislation
Łukasz Chodorowski
Abstract
The aim of the conducted analysis is to trace the secular the abortion legislation from the XVI to XIX century. The greatest inspiration for modern secular legislation concerning nasciturus and abortion was the prospect of embryogenesis by Aristotle and Aquinas elaborated by Christian scholarship, that assumed that humanity was a process, not a state. What is worth mentioning, the given understanding of the mechanisms of human reproduction was notably questioned on the basis of natural science in the XVI and XVII century. Despite this fact, until the end of the XVIII century, the authoritative inspiration for the secular legislation was the Christian teaching. The undertaken analysis proves that at the end of the XVIII century the postulates placed by the thinkers of the Age of Enlightenment drawing attention to the circumstances and motives of aborting pregnancy have introduced gradual humanization of penalization. More and more clearly, they set the direction of legislation of the matter. Moreover, the XIX century abortive legislation was unified within the frames of the continental system. Legislators abandoned the idea of distinguishing an animated and non-animated fetus, and abortion was almost always treated as a crime against life.
Keywords:
embryo, abortion, law, animation, soul, The Early Modern PeriodReferences
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The aim of the conducted analysis is to trace the secular the abortion legislation from the XVI to XIX century. The greatest inspiration for modern secular legislation concerning nasciturus and abortion was the prospect of embryogenesis by Aristotle and Aquinas elaborated by Christian scholarship, that assumed that humanity was a process, not a state. What is worth mentioning, the given understanding of the mechanisms of human reproduction was notably questioned on the basis of natural science in the XVI and XVII century. Despite this fact, until the end of the XVIII century, the authoritative inspiration for the secular legislation was the Christian teaching. The undertaken analysis proves that at the end of the XVIII century the postulates placed by the thinkers of the Age of Enlightenment drawing attention to the circumstances and motives of aborting pregnancy have introduced gradual humanization of penalization. More and more clearly, they set the direction of legislation of the matter. Moreover, the XIX century abortive legislation was unified within the frames of the continental system. Legislators abandoned the idea of distinguishing an animated and non-animated fetus, and abortion was almost always treated as a crime against life.
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