Abstract

This thesis attempts to dismantle the world of meaning which limits the understanding of abortion to only two perspectives: pro-life and pro-choice, and to begin a tentative reconstruction framed on Bernard Lonergan's transcendental method. His method, founded on the concrete subject seeking the good offers a creative framework which validates women's abortion decision-making and acting, as an important source of moral data. The transcendental method consists of the four operations of consciousness: experience, understanding, judging and deciding which operate within each individual. The thesis consists of four chapters each focusing on one of the operations in relation to abortion. I use Daniel Maguire's eight "reality revealing" questions and Lonergan's notions of horizon and social structures in order to reach a deeper understanding of voluntary pregnancy interruption. There are several social structures which require abortion as act of meaning if they are to function effectively. An analysis of the "good" of abortion consists of Lonergan's explanation of the human good; its components, the scale of values, and the three levels of the good. In the conclusion concrete actions are suggested as the result of my tentative reconstruction of a world of meaning in which social and cultural values (the good) are incarnated by individual women voluntarily ending their pregnancy. The question is addressed: Does abortion promote human progress or decline as defined by Lonergan?