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. In ancient times the Greek mathematician Pythagoras (582–500 B.C.E.) and the physician Hippocrates (460–377 B.C.E.) believed that a soul formed at conception, and they opposed abortion at any point in the pregnancy. Even so, Hippocrates was willing to make some exceptions. Aristotle (384–322 B.C.E.) believed the rational soul did not arrive at conception but only later after the conceived developed into a human form. He held that early abortions could be justified to reduce the societal threat of overpopulation. Plato (428–348 B.C.E.) thought abortion could even be mandated for women over forty years of age. So the ancients were not at one on the issue of abortion. (See Schroedel, 2000, m 17–19; Gorman, 1992, 164–167; on the history of fertility management from antiquity into modern times, see Noonan, 1965).
