Teluog
April 1st 2009, 04:45 PM
Came across this while doing my Church History paper. From The Christian Defence:
...As regards infanticide, however, although child-murder differs from homicide, it makes no difference whether it is done wilfully or as part of a sacred rite. I will turn to you now as a nation. How many of the crowd standing round us, open-mouthed for Christian blood, how many of you gentlemen, magistrates most just and strict against us, shall I not prick your inner consciousness as being the slayers of your own offspring? There is, indeed, a difference in the manner of death; but assuredly it is more cruel to drown an infant or to expose it to cold and starvation and the dogs; even an adult would prefer to die by the sword. But for us, to whom homicide has been once for all forbidden, it is not permitted to break up even what has been conceived in the womb, while the blood is still being drawn from the mother's body to make a new creature. Prevention of birth is premature murder, and it makes no difference whether it is a life already born that one snatches away or a life that is coming to birth that one destroys. The future man is a man already: the whole fruit is present in the seed..."
...As regards infanticide, however, although child-murder differs from homicide, it makes no difference whether it is done wilfully or as part of a sacred rite. I will turn to you now as a nation. How many of the crowd standing round us, open-mouthed for Christian blood, how many of you gentlemen, magistrates most just and strict against us, shall I not prick your inner consciousness as being the slayers of your own offspring? There is, indeed, a difference in the manner of death; but assuredly it is more cruel to drown an infant or to expose it to cold and starvation and the dogs; even an adult would prefer to die by the sword. But for us, to whom homicide has been once for all forbidden, it is not permitted to break up even what has been conceived in the womb, while the blood is still being drawn from the mother's body to make a new creature. Prevention of birth is premature murder, and it makes no difference whether it is a life already born that one snatches away or a life that is coming to birth that one destroys. The future man is a man already: the whole fruit is present in the seed..."