ABSTRACT
Abortion is the deliberate termination of a pregnancy. The morality of this procedure has been debated since the dawn of history, and the human race has never arrived at a consensus on the issue. The ethics of abortion has multiple layers, and this explains why at times abortion debates become heated. Three topics relate especially to the discussion of abortion, likely the physiology and moral status of the fetus; the status of women; and the multiple crises created by overpopulation. 'Soul' was the historical metaphor used to describe life. The status of the fetus in Buddhism is complicated. As with Buddhism, Hinduism manages to combine a seemingly absolute prohibition of abortion with its allowance. In Judaism, there is great respect for the dignity of the fetus, and some teaching says that if a man were to force his wife to have an abortion it would have been better for him not to have been born.
