生の否定に抗して : 人工妊娠中絶批判のための一試論

抄録

This paper aims to criticize abortion and to present a vision of what our society and life should be. In Japan, abortion is technically illegal, but loopholes result in about as many as 300,000 approved pregnancy terminations a year. This paper insists that most abortions (including shady abortions) in Japan should not be approved (the paper does not dwell on abortion in cases of rape or when there is danger to the mother's life because space is limited). Broadly speaking, the main issues in the abortion debate are whether the fetus is a "person" or not, whether "rights" such as the reproductive rights of women and the fetal right to live should be recognized and whether a relationship between a pregnant woman and her fetus is formed. This paper argues against abortion from a relationalistic viewpoint; it criticizes the past relationalistic views and develops a new relationalistic view. Abortion is an act where adults unilaterally deny "the life of a child who is growing and affirming his/her own being", thereby destroying any relationship with the child. Moreover, it is an act of adults refusing a child's participation in society simply because the child was accidentally conceived by parents who did not want him/her, or simply because the child was diagnosed with a disability, etc. In brief, abortion ruins our conception of "society being a place that welcomes life hospitably". Welcoming life hospitably is to accept it unconditionally; just as it is. In order to actually solve the abortion problem, one must establish relationships where one can affirm one's own life, the opposite sex person's life, and the fetus' life, as well. This is much more important than abstractly arguing over rights, personhood, and such.