James Bohan is an attorney who hopes to stimulate a re-evaluation of abortion in American society, where one and a half million abortions occur each year.
His book has two parts, the first deals with the way we think about abortion in order to establish that ‘the unborn are living human beings’ who have a right to life. The second part seeks to change how we feel about abortion by exposing the reasons and techniques for abortion, drawing parallels with the ideology and progress of the Holocaust and explaining the role of the rhetoric of feminism in the acceptance of abortion.
The original ancient Greek story, House of Atreus was tragic in its stomach turning depravity. This modern namesake is no different. It is well written, well researched and deeply disturbing.
Particularly distressing are accounts of mid-term ‘partial birth’ abortions where the baby’s feet are pulled down the birth canal, the undelivered head crushed and the brain suctioned out; accounts of failed abortions where the baby survives only to be killed by neglect or lethal injection; and the increasing incidence of infanticide by US doctors.
Bohan’s thesis is that human atrocities are only possible when we diminish the humanity of one or other section of society. When this happens even ‘moral’ people countenance the taking of less-than-human life in abortion, infanticide, euthanasia and even genocide.
However, from a Christian point of view, the book suffers from a significant flaw. Bohan deliberately avoided theological arguments against abortion – although he concedes they are important. He claims that theological arguments are only persuasive to the extent to which these presuppositions are shared.
Instead he opts for ‘universally accepted principles’ of human rights enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, the American Constitution and other human rights treaties. His definitions of ‘living human being’ and right to life, for example, are established in light of these American icons and US legal practice. However this approach is far more susceptible to relativism than biblical arguments, because it assumes the American way is the right way.
