Abstract

The history of Christianity shows a coherent attitude towards abortion. However, for centuries therapeutic abortion remained a matter of theological discussion. At the end of the nineteenth century the Holy Office issued a series of decrees that established a general principle. Any surgical intervention directly lethal – either to the mother or the fetus – was forbidden. Documents from the first decades of the twentieth century reveal tensions between medical and religious perspectives. This essay focuses on the argument between Agostino Gemelli and Ernesto Pestalozza over the case of uterine cancer and argues that Gemelli, as a religious leader and academic, played a crucial role in swaying Italian Catholic physicians towards a stricter interpretation of therapeutic abortion