Science in Christian Perspective

Letter to the Editor

Superficiality of Theological Analysis
John Warwick Montgomery
The Simon Green Leaf School of Law
Oranee, California 92267

From: JASA 34 (September 1982): 189.                     Response by author

I am deeply disturbed by the superficiality of theological analysis in D. Gareth Jones' article, "Abortion: An Exercise in Biomedical Ethics" (JournalASA, March 1982). Admittedly, Professor Jones is not a theologian; but if he attemps to analyze the "Biblical Principles" concerning the abortion issue, he has the clear responsibility to research the subject so as to avoid misleading his readership. Specifically, Jones' argument that Exodus 21:22-25 "explicitly distinguishes the killing of a fetus from murder, on the ground that the fetus is not equivalent to an adult human life," has been exploded by the best classical and contemporary biblical scholarship. It is inexcusable that Jones did not consult the Christian Medical Society's symposium volume on the control of human reproduction (Birth Control and the Christian edited by Walter 0. Spitzer and Carlyle L. Saylor [Tyndale, 1969]; as an Addendum to my essay, "The Christian View of the Fetus," I dealt with that same interpretation of Exodus 21 as presented at the symposium by Dr. Bruce Waltke-and, as a result of my critique, Dr. Waltke now places the origin of the human person at the moment of conception and supports a thoroughgoing pro-life view.