KNOWING AND BELIEVING: THE DEBATE ABOUT THE NEW REGULATION OF ABORTION

Abstract

This essay focuses on the argument which states that only a religious and, therefore, non rational neither publicly relevant reason, can regard unborn foetus endowed with dignity from  conception.  Trying  to clarify  what  reasoning  on ethically  controversial  issues  in a plural society means, it pays close attention to Habermas  and Spaemann’s  thinking about human life and dignity. The first one proposes in The Future of Human Nature considering unborn life non available, though sometimes violable and calls believers and non believers to collaborate by translating their arguments into public reasons and by opening their minds to the religious  world  respectively.  The  second  one  ponders  that  only  a religious  consi- deration  of human  life guarantees  the respect  for its dignity,  whose  fundamentals  lie on the distinction  between what we are and who we are. The article upholds that a religious reason does not only produce beliefs, but also knowledge and that our democracy  needs a free and serious dialogue among believers and non believers.