Artificial termination of pregnancy in Ukraine: bioethical, philosophical and religious aspects

Abstract

The aim: Is to study the levels of influence of the Christian spiritual tradition on the attitude of medical students to abortion, which necessitated a comparative analysis of Christian ethics and the main approaches of secular bioethics regarding artificial termination of pregnancy; analysis of the results of sociological research taking into account the peculiarities of religious self-identification of medical students. Materials and methods: The complex nature of the studied issue necessitated the application of interdisciplinary approaches, philosophical, general scientific and special sociological methods of collecting, processing and analyzing information. Certain differences between Christian moral guidelines and attitudes towards artificial termination of pregnancy were found in a questionnaire study conducted by a sociological group of the Bogomolets National Medical University (hereinafter – NMU) in 2020. The object of the study were first and sixth year students and postgraduate students of NMU (N = 375). Results: Based on a comparative analysis of the evaluative judgments of three groups of respondents (1 group – those who identified themselves as Christians; 2 group – those who are uncertain with their attitude towards religion; 3 group – those who consider themselves non-believers) regarding artificial termination of pregnancy, it was found that the attitude of medical students-believers towards this problem differs from the more liberal approaches of the respondents of the second and third groups, and, at the same time, has significant differences with Christian moral guidelines on this issue. Conclusions: A comparative analysis of the main approaches of secular bioethics and Christian ethics to the issue of artificial termination of pregnancy allows us to conclude that the Christian position is distinguished by the recognition of sacredness, inviolability of human life, inalienable dignity and value of human being from conception to the natural end of life. This determines the special importance of the Christian spiritual tradition in overcoming the manifestations of abortive mentality in contemporary Ukrainian society.