[Nikita]

I wonder if an abortion of an ectopic pregnancy (a complication of pregnancy in which the embryo attaches outside the uterus) is considered immoral and equal to killing a human being. If such a woman decides not to do an abortion, she will die herself. Should she just accept her kamma vipaka or maybe killing a child who cannot even be born would bring a less potent kamma beeja?

[y not]

Certain is that abortion amounts to killing a human being.That the child cannot be born is not a thing she can help or that she (at least consciously) intended to bring about. So aborting the child would bring a more potent kamma vipaka. In this light, I do not see how accepting her kamma vipaka would in this case equate with suicide.

[Lal]

This is one of those in the “grey area”.

If a fetus in the womb is aborted, that is definitely “killing a human being”; see, “Buddhist Explanations of Conception, Abortion, and Contraception“.

I Googled “ectopic pregnancy” and the following are bits of information from there:

1. “ectopic pregnancy — happens when a fertilized egg gets stuck on its way to the uterus”.

– So, the fetus does not get to the uterus.

2. The pregnancy may not even be detected until either “The structure containing the fetus typically ruptures after about 6 to 16 weeks, long before the fetus is viable..”

– So, normally pregnancy is detected when that structure ruptures and the mother is taken to a hospital.
– Then the doctors remove that fetus anyway, to save the mother’s life.

3. There have been few cases where the fetus grows outside the womb and the baby is delivered (but the pregnancy had not been detected): “Ectopic pregnancy“.
4. So, it seems ectopic pregnancy is detected when the mother starts bleeding, and then the normal procedure is to remove it to save the mother.

We must also realize that there are many instances where it is impossible to live without harming other beings (not humans, unless it is a special case like this).
– When we apply medicine to a wound, for example, numerous microscopic beings are killed. When we take medicine for a stomach-ache the same.
– So, sometimes it is unavoidable to avoid these things as long as we are in this rebirth process.

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