Abortion in the Bible I am in favor of abortion in most cases. It is my personal belief that an unborn fetus is not a living being. At the moment of birth, when the fetus is outside the maternal womb and breathing on its own, then in my opinion it should be considered a living being. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay I would like to touch on the religious aspect of abortion as the original author chose to mention it. I did some research on the biblical aspects and was surprised to find some interesting interpretations on the topic. The Bible does not appear to directly address the issue of abortion. Roy Bowen Ward cites two anti-abortion books in his essay on fetal personhood: John T. Noonan (1970) said, "The Old Testament has nothing to say about abortion." John Connery (1977) said: "If anyone expects to find an explicit condemnation of abortion in the New Testament, he will be disappointed. The silence of the New Testament regarding abortion surpasses even that of the Old Testament." Ward found this silence difficult to understand, because abortion was widely practiced in the New Testament. Old Testament era in the Middle East. The Assyrians had a law on self-induced abortions as early as the 12th century BC. On the other hand, there are some biblical passages that could be interpreted as referring to the value of a fetus. But even these suggest that a fetus was less valuable than human life. Here are some examples of passages I have found that perhaps address this topic: Genesis 2:7 God created Adam's body from the dust of the earth. Later, “man became a living soul” only after God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.” This would imply that Adam's personality began when he took his first breath. Following this reasoning, the newborn becomes human as soon as it begins to breathe; a fetus is only potentially human; an abortion would not end a human life. The most important word in the Hebrew Scriptures used to describe a person was "nephesh"; appears 755 times in the Old Testament. It is translated as "living soul" in the previous passage. One scholar, H. W. Wolff, believes the root of the word means "to breathe." He argues that in Old Testament times, "living creatures are thus exactly defined in Hebrew as breathing creatures." Leviticus 27:6 And if the age is from one month to five years, then your estimate shall be for the male five shekels of silver, and for the female ten shekels of silver. A child was only assigned a value after he turned one month old; the boys were worth five shekels; girls three; below that age (and presumably before birth) they were assigned no monetary value. Numbers 3:15 Take a census...including every male a month old or older. Only male infants older than one month were considered people for census purposes. A baby less than a month old and a fetus were apparently not worthy of being considered human beings. Ecclesiastes 6:3-5 If a man beget 100 children...and his soul is not full of good, and also that he have no burial; I say that a premature birth [a miscarriage] is better than him. The passage implies that a person can have many children and a long life; but if he is not motivated by love and goodness, and if he is not buried properly, then it would have been better if he had been stillborn. The suggestion here is that a terminated pregnancy (that does not produce a live birth) is better than a pregnancy that has produced an empty and miserable life. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay In.