Talk:Guidelines for Raising Children: Abortion
By Vishal Agarwal
Children are regarded as a blessing, a source of joy, and a fulfillment of married life. Therefore, abortion was frowned upon and was generally associated with cases where illicit relations had led to a pregnancy. The birth of a child gives an ātmā the chance to inhabit a physical abode and progress towards its own mokṣa. Abortion snatches that right from the ātmā. Children also free us from our debt to our forefathers who brought us into this world and whose preta-s are fed by their descendants, including our own children.
For these reasons, the Dharmashāstra tradition is quite unanimous in listing abortion (bhrūṇahatyā) of one’s fetus as a great evil action. Likewise, one who caused a woman to abort or miscarry her child was promised hellish consequences for his heinous deed, and the unborn fetus was said to curse the one who caused it to die. In the Mahābhārata, Aśvatthāmā launches a missile to cause the miscarriage of Uttarā, the widowed wife of Abhimanyu and daughter-in-law of the Pāṇḍava-s. As a result of this evil deed, Kṛṣṇa curses him to live in perpetual misery. While abortion kills the fetus, it can also lead to severe trauma (mental or otherwise) to the mother and the father as well.
Modern law does not prohibit abortion as such and recognizes some extenuating circumstances where abortion might be preferable: when the conceived child results from incest or rape, when the fetus poses a risk to the life of the mother, when the fetus is not viable (i.e., expected to die on its own or be born with severe defects), and so on. In ancient times, it was not possible to determine fetal viability or defects until after birth, so these cases of abortion never happened. Likewise, unlike in modern times, abortion was not seen by people as a means to control human population. There can be no justification for wanton sexual relations leading to pregnancy and then aborting the fetus in the name of controlling population.
The debate as to when it is the “right” period for abortion is unresolved all over the world. Some guidance from Ayurveda might be useful in this regard. According to the Āyurveda texts, life commences immediately after conception, when the soul, enveloped by a subtle body (including manas, subtle forms of sense organs, and impressions of karm from previous lives), enters the fertilized egg[1]. In the third or fourth month, the embryo actually becomes “alive” but is not yet an individual, since its experiences and feelings are dependent on that of the mother (and vice versa)[2]. The exchange of emotions between the mother and the embryo takes place through the umbilical cord, which is why the texts urge that all the wishes and cravings of a pregnant woman must be fulfilled.
In the fifth month, the fetus is endowed with manas, and in the sixth with sense of cognition[3][4]. In short, it is largely in the middle of the second trimester that the fetus becomes an individual or person in the true sense of the word. This equates roughly to 18–20 weeks. In many societies, abortion is permitted up to this period based on medical investigations regarding the beginnings of human life, and this conclusion is similar to what the Ayurveda state or imply.