Ironically, for those who identify as Catholic, greater courage may be required.

Catholic bioethicist Bernadette Tobin writes: "In order to understand the teachings of the Catholic Church in relation to questions about the beginning of life, we need to identify and appreciate the one idea that informs all of these teachings.

"This is the idea that the life of every human being is, in and of itself, valuable or sacred."

For Catholics, the unconditional respect due to human life begins when an ovum is fertilised.

Embryos become children not by some addition to what they are, but simply by developing further as the kind of beings they already are.

No matter how undeveloped or damaged the potentialities of a human being may be, that life is sacred.

This view runs counter to that of many people for whom the embryo is nothing more than a ‘clump of cells'.

‘How can we possibly accord the same moral status to a group of cells as to a person?' it is asked. Continue reading.

John Kleinsman is director of The Nathaniel Centre

Source: The Nathaniel Centre

Image: Marist Messenger