March 6, 2006

MINNEAPOLIS – New developments in abortion legislation have once again pitted religious and political groups against each other, disputing the moral status of abortion. Gov. Mike Rounds signed legislation today banning nearly all abortions in South Dakota, setting up a court fight aimed at challenging the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. Author and theologian Daniel C. Maguire has showed the fundamental ambiguity of the world's major religious traditions in his book Sacred Choices: The Right to Contraception and Abortion in Ten World Religions (Fortress Press). Summarizing the work of ten scholars affiliated with Religious Consultation on Population, Reproductive Health and Ethics, Maguire aims to show how ten major religious traditions are "storehouses of good sense and wisdom in the area of sexuality and family planning – more than you expected."

Opening a new conversation about a conflicted and polarized area, Maguire shows how interrelated overpopulation is with poverty, ethnic injustice, gender injustice, and the maldistribution of economic resources. Often the world's religions (most notoriously perhaps, Roman Catholicism) are thought to contribute only to the problem, rather than solutions, through their hostility to sex, education and equal rights for women, and birth control. In fact argues Maguire, the ten scholars who consulted for several years about how these traditions treat issues of contraception and abortion find in them a true religious awe at the sacredness of life, a genuine openness to sexuality as a dimension of the sacred, and "alongside the ‘no choice' position...a ‘pro-choice' position that is too little known, even by adherents to the religion.

The religious claim that embryonic tissue has personal status is disputed in Dr. Maguire's book. One of the contributors to Sacred Choices, Catholic theologian, Christine Gudorf describes a Catholic pastoral view that is rarely heard among the voices in the debate. Her interpretation of texts is "that ensoulment occurs at quickening, when the fetus can first be felt moving in the mother's womb, usually early in the fifth month. Before ensoulment, the fetus is not understood as a human person. This was the reason the Catholic Church did not baptize miscarriages or stillborns." Dr. Maguire adds, "St. Thomas Aquinas, the premier teacher in the Roman Catholic tradition, did not think the early fetus was a person." Aquinas adopted the view that the fetus did not become an ensouled person until three or four months into the pregnancy.

Sacred Choices also cites Jewish Theologian Laurie Zoloth. Writing of Judaism "a fetus is not seen as being an ensouled person. Not only are the first forty days of conception considered ‘like water' but also even in the last trimester, the fetus has a lesser moral status." This is based on the ancient writings of Judaism (Rashi commenting on the Sanhedrin 72b).

Similar thinking underlies the common Islamic view on the permissibility of early abortion. Muslim Theologian Riffat Hassan in Sacred Choices, states that there is broad acceptance in the major Islamic schools of law on the permissibility of abortion in the first four months of pregnancy.

One of the messages of Sacred Choices is the importance of knowing that there are different ways to interpret the same religious text. For those involved in the political, scientific, religious and ethical debate involving embryonic tissue, Sacred Choices offers a new ethical framework to communicate about this complex issue.

Endorsements

"In Sacred Choices, Dan Maguire has changed the debate over reproductive rights forever by conclusively demonstrating that there is a theological basis for the pro-choice position in ten world religions. He effectively challenges moderate religious folks to speak up about how their faith traditions inform their views, so that the public and policy makers will understand that the religious right does not possess the authoritative voice on these issues." – Rev. Stephen J. Mather, Member, Board of Directors, Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

"Sacred Choices is the right choice for anyone who wants to explode the poisonous myth that the world's religions oppose a woman's right to reproductive freedom. With the aid of authoritative theologians on each of the faiths examined, Professor Daniel Maguire has marshaled a wealth of factual information to show how the theologies of ten world religions support the right of a woman to decide whether and when to bear a child. Every bit as remarkable are the considerable wit and wisdom he has brought to the task of creating a breakthrough volume that is easily accessible and a delight to read." – Rabbi Balfour Brickner, Senior Rabbi, Emeritus, Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, New York City.

"What Dr. Maguire, with his scholarly guides, does so brilliantly is make the data accessible, lift the shroud of stereotype, and let the reader decide for her/himself." – Mary E. Hunt, Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual.

"With all the shouting in the angry debate about abortion, you would think we possessed God's full understanding about our creation. Clearly, we need a new conversation, and Professor Maguire could move us toward a more civilized, more Christian, discussion." – John P. Blessington, American Catholic.

Daniel C. Maguire is a Professor of Moral Theological Ethics at Marquette University, a Catholic, Jesuit Institution and President of the Religious Consultation on Population, Reproductive Health and Ethics. Dr. Maguire has a degree in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, one of the world's major catholic universities, with special ties to the Vatican.

Dr. Maguire has written over 150 articles printed in publications such as The New York Times, Atlantic, USA Today, The Crisis: Journal of the NAACP, etc. The articles include "Different but Equal: A Moral Assessment of the Woman's Liberation," "The Psychotherapist as Moralist," "The Freedom to Die," "Sex and Ethical Methodology," "The New Look of Death" and "Affirmative Action at Bay."

Of his many honors, he was listed by Ms. Magazine as one of the "40 male heroes of the past decade, men who took chances and made a difference," 1982. His book, The Moral Choice, won "Best Scholarly Book of the Year, 1978." The University of Notre Dame named Maguire one of the ten best teachers, 1983-1984.

His published books include: Moral Absolutes and the Magisterium, 1970; The Moral Choice, 1975; A New American Justice: Ending the White Male Monopolies, 1980; The New Subversives: Anti-Americanism of the Religious Right, 1982; The Moral Revolution, 1986; On Moral Grounds: The Art/Science of Ethics, 1991; The Moral Core of Judaism and Christianity, 1993; Sacred Energies, 2000; What Men Owe Women, 2000; and A Moral Creed for All Christians, 2005.

Sacred Choices, By Daniel C. Maguire, ISBN 0-8006-3433-0, $13.00, 5.5 x 8.5" Paper, 168 pages.

To order Sacred Choices please call Fortress Press at 1-800-328-4648 or visit the web site at http://www.fortresspress.com/.

Fortress Press