|
Quotations from the early Church Fathers on the Sanctity of Human Life The Didache ca 120 AD "Thou shalt not murder a child by abortion." 2:2 "The Way of Death is filled with people who are ... murderers of
children and abortionists of God's creatures." 5:1-2 The Epistle or Barnabas ca 125 AD "Thou shalt love thy neighbor more than thy own life. Thou shalt not murder a child by abortion." 19:5 The Apocalypse of Peter ca 135 "I saw a gorge in which the discharge and excrement of the tortured ran down and became like a lake. There sat women, and the discharge came up to their throats; and opposite them sat many children, who were born prematurely, weeping. And from them went forth rays of fire and smote the women on the eyes. These were those who produced children outside of marriage and who procured abortions." -26 "Those who slew the unborn children will be tortured forever, for
God wills it to so." -2:264 Clement of Alexandria ca 150-180 "Our whole life can go on in observation of the laws of nature, if
we gain dominion over our desires from the beginning and if we do not kill, by various
means of a perverse art, the human offspring, born according to the designs of divine
providence; for these women who, if order to hide their immorality, use abortive drugs
which expel the child completely dead, abort at the same time their own human
feelings." -Paedagogus 2 St. Athenagoras ca 765 Tertullian ca 160-240 "For us [Christians] we may not destroy even the fetus in the womb,
while as yet the human being derives blood from other parts of the body for its
sustenance. To hinder a birth is merely a speedier man-killing; nor does it matter when
you take away a life that is born, or destroy one that is coming to birth. That is a man
which is going to be one: you have the fruit already in the seed." -Apology 9:6 "They [John and Jesus] were both alive while still in the womb.
Elizabeth rejoiced as the infant leaped in her womb; Mary glorifies the Lord because
Christ within inspired her. Each mother recognizes her child and is known by her child who
is alive, being not merely souls but also spirits." Nlititicilis Felix ca 180-225 "There are women who swallow drugs to stifle in their own womb the
beginnings of a man to be - committing infanticide before they even give birth to the
infant." -Octavius St. Hippolytus ca 170-236 "Reputed believes began to resort to drugs for producing Sterility
and to gird themselves round, so as to expel what was conceived on account of their not
wanting to have a child either by a slave or by any paltry fellow, for the sake of their
family and excessive wealth. Behold, into how great impiety that lawless one has
proceeded, by inculcating adultery and murder at the same time." -Refutation of all Heresies 9:7 Council of Eivira ca 305 "If a woman becomes pregnant by committing adultery, While her
husband is absent, and after the act she destroys the child, it is proper to keep her from
communion until death, because she has doubled her crime." -Canon 63 St. Basil the Great ca 330-379 "She who has deliberately destroyed a fetus has to pay the penalty
of murder.... here it is not only the child to be born that is vindicated, but also the
woman herself who made an attempt against her own life, because usually the women die in
such attempts. Furthermore, added to this is the destruction of the child, another
murder." -Letter 188:2 "Moreover, those, too, who give drugs causing abortion are
deliberate murderers themselves, as well as those receiving the poison which kills the-
fetus." -Letter 188:2 St. Ambrose of Milan ca 339-397 The wealthy, in order that their inheritance may not be divided among
several, deny in the very womb their own progeny. By use of' parricidal mixtures they
snuff out the fruit of their wombs in the genital organs themselves. In this way life is
taken away before it is born .... Who except man himself has taught us ways of repudiating
children?" -Hexameron St. Jerome ca 342-420 "They drink potions to ensure sterility and are guilty of murdering
a human being not yet conceived. Some, when they learn that they are with child through
sin, practice abortion by the use of drugs. Frequently they die themselves and are brought
before the rulers of the lower world guilty of three crimes: suicide, adultery against
Christ, and murder of an unborn child." -Letter 22:13 The Apostolic Constitutions ca 380 "Thou shalt not slay the child by causing abortion, nor kill that
which is begotten. For everything that is shaped, and his received a soul from God, if
slain, it shall be avenged, as being unjustly destroyed." ,-7:3 St. John Chrysostom ca 340-407 "Why sow where the ground makes it its care to destroy the fruit?
Where there are many efforts at abortion? Where there is murder before the birth? For you
do not even let the harlot remain a mere harlot, but make her a murderer also. You see how
drunkenness leads to whoredom, whoredom to adultery, adultery to murder; or rather
something even worse than murder. For I have no real name to give it, since it does not
destroy the thing born but prevents its being born. Why then do you abuse the gift of God
and fight with His laws, and follow after what is a curse as if a blessing, and make the
place of procreation a chamber for murder, and arm the woman that was given for
childbearing unto slaughter? -Homily 24 on Romans For those who would say that the early Church was silent
on the question of abortion, even the few select quotations quoted above from the Church
Fathers give witness to the contrary.
|
