BUDDHISM AND ABORTION | Zen Wisdom

QUESTIO:
Abortion is a major issue that not only involves medical and social questions, but deeply moral ones as well. From the point of view of the Dharma, what is the correct view that Buddhists should have towards abortion?
SHIH-FU:
I know this is a touchy subject, especially in the United States. People are polarized into different camps of pro-choice and pro-life. I do not profess to be a legislator or judge. It is a very complicated issue in a very complicated and fast-changing society. I want to make it clear that by no means am I setting myself up as a moral mouthpiece or issuer of steadfast law. I am a Buddhist monk who has studied and practiced the Dharma for a long time. What I know is Buddhadharma, and that is the position I will speak from.

There is a sutra called the Sutra of the Womb, which talks about the moment of conception, when a sentient being enters a womb. It describes how it enters the womb, what it experiences, and how it is born. There are other sutras which talk about the intermediate state between death and rebirth.

The karma of a sentient being exists in this intermediate state until, as a result of karmic affinity with its future parents, it enters the womb of the mother. According to the Sutra of the Womb, this affinity is expressed by the sentient being being drawn to a light from far away. Because of the pull of its karmic affinity with the parents, the sentient being is drawn to the mother’s womb, without being aware of it. At the moment the egg is fertilized by a sperm cell, the light disappears, the sentient being enters the womb and the new life begins.

At this moment the sentient being carries the full karmic burden of its previous lives. So, though life appears to begin haphazardly, a child is born to a particular set of parents because of its karmic affinity with them. Because of this karmic bond, the mother has a responsibility to nourish and bring the sentient being to birth. Thus, regardless of the circumstances of conception, or whether or not the baby is wanted, the mother is karmically connected and related to the new being. When understood in this light, it is clear that a mother should bring her baby into the world and care for it.
There are unfortunate, even tragic circumstances surrounding many conceptions, such as rape and incest; but even here, mother and child are karmically linked. Society should respond with sympathy and compassion for mother and child, and help care for babies under these conditions.

From these principles alone, it should be clear that a correct view for Buddhists is that abortion at any time means killing a sentient being, because life is already present.

During the first month of life, the embryo has no feeling because the nervous system has not yet developed. It is more like a mass of cells. But after a month, nerve structures grow and the embryo develops the capacity for sensation. After five or six months, the mental faculties are well-developed. Around this time the fetus has some simple abilities to adapt to conditions in the womb. For example, it can move around to find a better position.

About two months short of the normal gestation period, a baby that is prematurely delivered may still live and grow normally, proving that as early as six or seven months, the fetus is anatomically a complete person.

Those who say that abortion is acceptable because the embryo is not yet a person are ignoring the fact that the embryo develops very quickly, and that its human attributes, anatomically speaking, appear very early. It would also follow that at some point, the fetus becomes capable of sensation or feeling, and may experience suffering as a result of an abortion.

There are those who maintain that it is the mother’s right to use her body as she wishes. For Buddhists, this is an incorrect view, because it implies that the baby is part of the mother’s body and belongs to her. The Dharma teaches that the baby is a sentient being with a previous life which, because of its karma, entered that particular woman’s womb to be reborn. It is not as if the mother created the baby out of nothing. You could say that a fetus is just borrowing its mother’s womb to develop into a full human being.

For Buddhists, therefore, the correct view is that abortion is killing and violates the first precept. It is irresponsible.

STUDENT:
In some cases, a clinical situation may arise where either the fetus has to be aborted or the mother may lose her life. What is the correct course here?

SHIH-FU:
You want to try to save the life that has already been born, so although it is still killing, the mother should be saved and the fetus, aborted.

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