Abstract
While many moral and medical challenges at the end of life have found wide consensus on brain-based criteria for death, the abortion issue still causes great personal and societal moral uncertainties and conflicts. It was Andre Hellegers (1970) who stressed that
it is not a function of science to prove, or disprove, where in this process [fetal development] human life begins, in the sense that those discussing the abortion issue so frequently use the word “life,” i.e., human dignity, human personhood, or human inviolability. Such entities do not pertain to the science or art of medicine, but are rather of societal judgement.
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Sass, HM. (1994). The Moral Significance of Brain-Life Criteria. In: Beller, F.K., Weir, R.F. (eds) The Beginning of Human Life. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8257-5_5
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