Abolishing Abortion (Thomas Nelson)

Before I begin my review of Abolishing Abortion, allow me to share a quote with you from the Introduction. "I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?" This profound quote is from the Blessed Mother Teresa, and it speaks volumes to the pro-death culture we currently live in. In it, she equates abortion to murder, which it is. She also likens it to war, though, which is a way I never saw before. The only part of the quote I disagree with is that she only blames the mother for this crime. The father is nowhere to be found in her quote, but he too is equally guilty.

After the introduction, the book begins by talking about the public square, separation of church and state, Roe v. Wade, and how the political landscape has changed over the past 200 years. We went from life being an inalienable right to all men, to babies never even having the chance to that right. Chapter Three was a bit of a troubling read to me. Fr. Pavone talks about how people ask him what their first spiritual duty is on the abortion issue. Instead of answering prayer, he instead responds with repentance. He says we are all responsible for abortion becoming so rampant. Even if we have never had an abortion or aided someone in abortion, he still sees us as guilty, because we could have spoke out more strongly against it, but we chose not to due to cowardice. I respectfully disagree with assessment, and I think it feels over-scrupulous.

Subsequent chapters discuss what individuals and churches can do to combat abortion. He goes into speaking on the issue from the pulpit and tax-code and how it relates to whether a church can or cannot lose their tax-exempt status for speaking out against abortion. Churches cannot be afraid to stand up for the rights of the unborn over a matter of tax dollars. Chapter 9: Collision Course is one of the more interesting chapters. He points out the gap people seem to experience when they see a difference between killing a child outside of the womb and inside the womb. There isn't one! He also defends the use of graphic images on the Pro-Life side.They are disturbing and haunting to look at, but they are reality, and people need to have their eyes opened to the reality that what they are doing is murder. It is easy to ignore something if you don't have to see it as it really is, but it's hard to ignore the cold reality of images.

The book ended talking about the "Foundation of Love." "Abortion is the exact opposite of love.  Love says, 'I sacrifice myself for the good of the other person.'  Abortion says, 'I sacrifice the other person for the good of myself.' And isn’t it amazing that the very same words used by the culture of death to justify abortion are the words used by our Lord to proclaim life and salvation and love: 'This is My body!' " There were absolutely brilliant points made in this book, and there were parts of this book that got bogged down and were dry to read. However, I do believe it is a book all Christians, not just Catholics should read. If you are looking for a book to give to someone to talk them out of the abortion, this is not it. The aim of this book is not one to convince people that abortion is wrong or explain why it is wrong. Instead, the aim seems to be a calling to arms all Christians to fight in this battle for life and death, not just of the innocent unborns but of society and civilization. If we continue down this path, it will only lead to destruction. May we turn the tides before it is too late!

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The Complete UnWind Dystology (Simon and Schuster)

If you are a student of languages and how words are formed, then when you hear the word dystology, it should immediately evoke a reaction. "Dys" means bad or difficult and "ology" is associated with the study of something. So is the message Neal Shusterman, the author of The Complete UnWind Dystology, trying to send us is that this is a study of something bad and difficult? Is he trying to be clever and play on the words to form a dystopian anthology (can't be a trilogy, since there are four books)? I don't have the answer to that, but instead I am just going to tell you about the four books in this Shusterman series that my friend, Sarah Reinhard, introduced me to.

The entire Unwind story takes place in the future, a dystopian future. (Side note: Dystopian futures seem to be the latest trend in YA novels with Hunger Games; Divergent; and the one that started it all, The Giver.) In Unwind's dystopian future, there was another civil war fought in the U.S. This one was fought over reproductive rights with the resolution being that life is considered inviolable from conception until age thirteen. Pause and think about that statement for a minute. It sounds almost Catholic. Life begins at conception and you cannot abort unborn children. However, there is a catch at the end of the statement. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, adults can have their children "unwound." The unwinding process takes all of the teen's organs and transplants them into others. "Life" therefore is not terminated, in the coldest of technicalities and with no regard for the soul of a human.

In the first book, UnWind, we are introduced to three teens, who will travel with us throughout the rest of the series. They are Connor, Rissa, and Lev. Each of them are scheduled to be unwound for different reasons. Connor's family has given up hope on reforming the rebel. Rissa is a ward of the state, so she is basically a cost-cutting measure. And Lev comes from an extreme religious sect. His parents consider him a tithe, since he is the tenth child. The book follows these teens throughout many adventures, including Connor and Rissa trying to escape to live, and Lev trying to turn himself in, because he believes being unwound is a great honor. They soon find out they are not alone among teens trying to escape being unwound. There is a whole group of them at an airplane graveyard, which try to live out their existence until they turn eighteen and can no longer be unwound. The whole story has good pacing and will leave you fascinated and uneasy that a society like this could exist.

In book two, UnWholly, the three teens from book one (Connor, Rissa, and Lev) have brought light to the horrible practice of unwinding. Before them, it was just an inconvenient fact of life. Now the practice's morality has come into question. We are also introduced to a new teen, Cam, who is made up entirely of unwound parts. This leads to other moral questions, like is Cam really human? Does he have a soul, or is he just a being that is less than the sum of his parts? Other teens are also introduced and become a part of the trio's group. However, these characters are a little more 2-D and at times feel a bit of a carbon copy of some of the main characters, as there is another tithe teen. There is also the obvious villain, a lot more action and fighting, the inevitable angsty love triangle found in all books of this genre, and a lot less thinking in this book.

UnSouled and UnDivided were supposed to be one book, but it was running long, so it was split into two books instead. UnSouled again introduces us to a new character named Grace, a teen with a simple mind in most regards but brilliant at strategy. There is also the character of Sonia, who the teens believe have the answer to stopping unwinding completely. In this book, Lev gets a bit more of a prominent role and we see him develop more. Overall, the book feels like and does lead to a cliffhanger like when Hollywood split up Harry Potter 7 and Hunger Games 3. Luckily, I received all the books at once so didn't have to wait for the resolution. UnDivided ties up all loose ends but not before some final fireworks, conflicts, and DRAMA! I don't want to give away too much and spoil the series and how it ends. You'll have to read the series to see if there is a chance for peace and a world without unwinding.

As a whole, this was a very enthralling series. Most of the Young Adult dystopian future series start out really strong, and with each subsequent book fizzle more. While, The Complete UnWind Dystology is not a perfect series, it is certainly one of the best I have read in a while. If you are a super big fan of the series, there is also an e-book called UnStrung that takes place between the first two books and fills in some gaps. As a Catholic, I don't generally recommend the latest dystopian future series because they are trite and usually devolve into a girl having to choose between two boys. This book, though not Catholic, hits you over the head with Catholic themes. Pro-Life vs Pro-Choice. When does life start? It even makes you think about your views on life. So many of us are pro-life, but only think about it in terms of abortion. This book reinforces (what should be a widely held belief) that all lives are valuable. This includes the unborn child and the prisoner on death row. Overall, I give this series 4.5 stars.

These books were provided to me for free by Simon and Schuster in exchange for an honest review. If you found this review helpful, please click here and hit Yes!

Harvard University Press: Aquinas on the Beginning and End of Human Life

Since I've become Catholic, I could easily say that my viewpoint on a lot of issues have been changed. Because I believe the Catholic Church is the fullness of faith and is true in her teachings, I have a new appreciation for matters of doctrinal and moral nature. One such example is my opinion on human life and death.  I have always been pro-life in terms of abortion. However, I used to see euthanasia as an acceptable choice. Since my conversion, I no longer see things that way anymore. Thank God for opening my eyes. I bring all this up, because I am reviewing a book from. I bring all this up, because I am reviewing a book from Harvard University Press called Aquinas on the Beginning and End of Human Life.

In Aquinas on the Beginning and End of Human Life, Fabrizio Amerini examines the writings of Thomas Aquinas to determine which side of the fence he would land on with regards to abortion, euthanasia, and personhood. For those unfamiliar with Fabrizio Amerini, such as myself before this book, he is an internationally renowned scholar of medieval philosophy. Chapters in this book cover topics that range from the human soul and embryology to the bioethical implications of Aquinas' viewpoint.

The book is laid out in a fact-oriented manner. Instead of telling you what he believes Thomas Aquinas is saying, Dr. Amerini presents you with Aquinas' writings and how they can be interpreted by each side. In my opinion, the most interesting parts of this book dealt with ensoulment. Ensoulment is when a human being gains his soul. It is the Catholic belief presently that ensoulment occurs at conception, thus an embryo is an actual human being. Thomas Aquinas (and others in that day) believed that ensoulment occurred 40 days after conception for males and 80 days after conception for females. Despite this though, he still believed abortion to be against natural law and a mortal sin, if committed before these times. However, he didn't regard it as a homicide. We, pro-lifers, would disagree today and say that abortion is a homicide.

I'm having a tough time determining a rating for this book. It is highly academic, and at times the footnotes overwhelm the actual text on the pages. I wonder who the audience for this book would be apart from academics or die-hard Aquinas lovers. Also, the book seemed to focus more on when human life began, and not near as much when it ended. Therefore, I wonder if it would have just been better to call this book, "Aquinas on the Beginning of Human Life." For these reasons, I am giving this book a 4 out of 5 stars. I would like to add, though, that as demonstrated in this book, no matter when Thomas Aquinas believed ensoulment occurred, he still believed a human embryo was a person or had the potential to be a person.

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