Abortion in Japan: Mizuko Kuyo

Abortion in Japanese Buddhism: The Mizuko Kuyō Abortion has been throughout history a contentious topic of discussion, and across diverse cultures and religions the subject of abortion is highly debated. In Japanese society, where abortion is freely permitted, an entire contemporary philosophy called mizuko kuyō has arisen to cope with the increasing popularity of abortion as a form of birth control. While the act of abortion clashes with basic Buddhist principles, Japanese Buddhism utilizes traditional Buddhist practices, and the evocation of guilt, in order to transcend religious dichotomies. Examination of the origin of mizuko kuyō and its rituals demonstrates how Japanese Buddhists use this practice to rectify the inherent differences between the act of abortion and the Buddhist tradition. To comprehend mizuko kuyō and abortion’s acceptance in Japanese Buddhism, it is imperative to first provide the significance of the expression. “Mizuko kuyo” refers to a commemorative service performed by a Buddhist priest for the spirits of mizuko, signifying “water child.” 1 The term implies that the child is sent back to the source of life, water, for resurrection and reincarnation. To Buddhists, this means that the child regresses back to its former nature in order to ready for a new birth. The Buddhist idea of continuous rebirth is essential to the Japanese Buddhist view of abortion as it provides reconciliation for the killing of the child. Instead of terminating the life of the child, it is permitted to say that the soul of the child remains intact, while the form or body is all that has been terminated. In this way, Japanese women who have abortions are able to justify their non-Buddhist actions with the belief that the child will be reborn again.
In Buddhism, life begins at the union of three stages: the sexual union of mother and father, the beginning of the mother’s fertile period, and childbirth itself.2 Buddhism proclaims that a fetus is

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