Buddhism and the Morality of Abortion

The article develops a philosophical and Buddhist ethical analysis of abortion by contrasting a strict anti-abortion interpretation with a more flexible Buddhist moral framework grounded in anattā, dependent arising, compassion, and the five aggregates. Barnhart focuses especially on whether Buddhist doctrine necessarily requires the view that human life begins at conception. He argues that the central issue is not merely biological fertilization but whether a morally significant individual life is present, which depends on how one understands viññāṇa, consciousness, rebirth, karmic continuity, and personal identity. By rejecting the idea that Buddhism requires a soul-like principle to explain moral identity, the article opens conceptual space for a Buddhist defense of abortion under certain circumstances, especially when motivated by compassion and evaluated within the full complexity of suffering, responsibility, and lived conditions.