Abortion and Slavery - Part III

Law exists in order to promote the common good. Just laws ensure the order, freedom and security necessary for individuals to pursue authentic goods for themselves and for the society in which they belong. Therefore it is clearly necessary for men and women to obey the law and, to some extent, to conform their own actions to those laws made by legitimate authority. Throughout the western world there are societies, such as our own, that have long enjoyed the blessings of the rule of law, and consequently most people respect the law and place a high value on obeying it.

This attitude towards the law, while on the whole good and necessary, can unfortunately be harmful when individuals fail to recognise that human laws, being the creation of man, have no sure guarantee of being in conformity to the natural moral law. This is especially the case with laws that are introduced at the behest of an organised minority to further an ideologically motivated agenda, rather than being based on the surer ground of precedent and custom. Unfortunately most people, brought up to regard obeying the law as a one of the most important social virtues, often find it difficult to conceive that political, social, intellectual and economic elites could have collectively committed themselves to enshrining a grave moral evil in law. This is seen most tragically in the case of those who, while having no personal inclination to support or promote abortion, allow their consciences to be lulled, and their response to be muted, by its legality.  

What should we say to those who act as if that which is legal is always right? Or those who presume that what is sanctioned by the highest authority in a supposedly civilised nation cannot also be a grave abuse of human dignity? For convincing evidence we need look no further than the degrading treatment of those of African descent in the United States. No less a document than the Constitution of the United States was held to have enshrined slavery in law. That same document was interpreted by the Supreme Court as denying citizenship to those of African race. These federal acts were replicated by state laws across the Union. Laws of segregation persisted until the 1960s. The legality of slavery was regarded as beyond argument; the legal arguments were accepted as watertight; the right to own slaves was far more deeply enshrined than the alleged right to abortion; yet was it not wrong nonetheless?

Abortion and Slavery - Part I

For many centuries slavery was widespread throughout the world and underpinned many economic systems. Slavery is a broad term and can be difficult to define precisely; it might mean that one person has complete control over the productive capacity of another, while other natural rights are left intact. Often, however, it can mean that a human person is simply to be considered a form of property with no rights at all. In these systems the slave can be bought, sold, abused and even killed and all with impunity and the full protection of the law. Such systems of slavery have been seen throughout history but perhaps the most well known is the transatlantic slave trade that saw the transportion of slaves from Africa to the 'New World'. These slaves, and their descendants for many generations, would spend their entire lives labouring, frequently in dehumanising conditions, for the profit of others, and often being denied even basic human dignity; families could be seperated, physical and sexual abuse were common,and a person's whole life could be regulated in such a way as best suited the needs of the owner.

It is common to hear people today ask the question 'how could people ever think that this was acceptable?'. Yet for centuries it went largely unquestioned; the only major exception being the Catholic Church, whose voice nonetheless was often unheard.

During the Eighteenth Century opposition to this form of slavery began to grow, and a powerful movement grew from small beginnings. A series of court cases, beginning with the Somersett case in 1722 began to lay the ground for the abolition of slavery, though public opinion was slow to follow. It wasn't until May 1787 that the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade was founded in London and was able to harness the growing momentum. It took more than twenty years for the trade in slaves to stop in British ships and forty years before slavery was completely abolished throughout the British Empire. It would be another generation before slavery would be abolished in the United States of America, home to so many of the planatations.Today there is almost total condemnation of this system. An abuse of human dignity that had for so long been legal and seen as perfectly acceptable has come at last to be seen in the clear light of truth, as one of the most terrible examples of human cruelty, apathy and self-deception.

There are many parallels between abortion and slavery, the pro-life movement and the anti-slavery movement - some may have struck you as you read this post. As this series progresses I hope to explore the parallels more closely in the hope that what we learn might help us to achieve what the abolitionists achieved, the complete eradication of a system founded on the destruction of human life and dignity.