F. Aprile, Decisione abortiva e actus debendi: per un’ontologia (debole) dell’evento embrionale

Abstract

The decision to have an abortion, to interrupt the formation of a human being inside a mother’s uterus, is an exceptionally tragic decision because it takes in account of the possibility of death – death before life. This difficult matter does not deserve to be dealt with naïve moralism or sterile opposing ideological views, but many paths must be explored. The «embryonic event» does not have anything to do with theories and concepts, due to the fact that one might rightfully doubt its ontological argument; a feeble ontology is expressed, a giving relation that becomes like Ereignis, an historical event and, at the same time, it becomes a linguistic and symbolic experience. The special relationship such as the one between a woman and her conceived embryo may be placed in the category of debt, the debt of recognition which stands at the origin of the «struggle for humanization». According to this meaning, the mother becomes the absolute debtor of the child she has in her womb. Deciding to except this relationship, to undertake this peculiar actus debendi, results in a true human act of responsibility which becomes an act of freedom. The decision of carrying on a pregnancy places the choice in an «over ethical» dimension, the dimension of love – love for nothing.