The beginning of life

The most natural thing in the world is for a human being to be born, to live and then to die. It should not be surprising, therefore, that so much is made in religion of the process of conception and procreation. One of the reasons for this is that the context in which a child is conceived remains an area for dispute between some people of faith and others. For many, the process of reproduction should be confined to within marriage, and so any sexual act that takes place outside this relationship is sinful. In the past, the offspring of such encounters were regarded as the children of fornication, illegitimate or, worse, outcasts. Today, our society as a whole takes a more relaxed approach to sexual behaviour, and far more children are born into a family where their parents are not married. However, many religious people, across the world’s religions, remain convinced that the most appropriate place for children to be born is into a married couple’s home. There is a need, therefore, to examine some of the issues related to the beginnings of life.

Since this is an area of fundamental importance, it is also covered in the Christianity section of Complete RE. Make sure you remind students of the Christian principle ‘All life is sacred’. This unit takes an in-depth look at abortion as this issue divides people of faith, as well as dividing them from others. This is especially true where abortion is used as a substitute for failed contraception. You may want to work with the school nurse or PSHE coordinator to prepare this lesson so that you present a united approach to the students.

By the end of this unit:

• most of your students will know that abortion is seen as evil by some people of faith
• some students will be able to explain the reasons why abortion is regarded by some people of faith as an evil
• a few students will be able to demonstrate the counter-arguments from the perspective of abortionists.

Prepare by reading the support material below. You should also provide this for the students. You will need to prepare thoroughly for this lesson; it looks like an easy topic to handle, but is in fact very complex. There may be a number of students in the class, depending on their age and ability, who will find this subject personally challenging.

Abortion

Starter

Have a revision session which draws on the work in the All life is sacred unit in the Christian Beliefs section. Draw out of the students important concepts like the inseparability of procreation from love-making for Christians, all life is sacred, God created the world, etc. Make these observations:

• abortion = the ending of a pregnancy
• spontaneous abortion = a miscarriage where the embryo/foetus/baby dies in the womb (in utero) and is expelled by the body
• termination = a procured abortion where medical science is used to deliberately end a pregnancy; it is this that is problematic for people of faith.

Activity

Using the information sheet above, ask groups of students to come up with a poster presentation which shows either five arguments in favour of abortion or five arguments against abortion.

Play the Microsoft_® PowerPoint slideshow below if you have the technology, and then pose the question: “When does life begin?”

The beginning of life

Plenary

In order to check for learning, ask the class to respond to these questions on an individual basis:

• At what stage of pregnancy does it become illegal to carry out a termination?
• For what reasons might a Christian be opposed to abortion?
• When do you suppose life begins in utero?

Homework activity

Set the activity sheet below as the homework for this unit.

Abortion activity sheet