INDUCED ABORTION AS PANATIPATA Revisiting Buddhist Position on the Right to Life of an Unborn

In this paper, investigating the issue whether Buddhism proposes (a) pro-life, (b) pro-choice, (c) middle way, or (d) ambiguous position on the issues of abortion, three questions are examined: (i) when does an individual life begin according to the early Buddhist texts? (ii) what are the cases of abortion recorded in the Pali texts? (iii) how and why the Buddhist metaphysical and ethical principles prohibits killing? Analysing selected passages of Pali texts such as Majjhima, Samyutta and Anguttara Nikaya-s, Vinaya Pitaka, Milindapanha, Dhammapada and Jataka, and their metaphysical and ethical ideas the author argues that abortion is an act of panatipata (killing) a moral being and is prohibited.