Research Paper Malneritch 1 Daniel Malneritch Research 29 March 2007 The topic of respecting life is a big controversy in today s politics. I believe it to be one of the most if not the most important discussion in the political arena. The following is a brief overview of the argument that the Catholic Church makes. This paper is, to the extent of my knowledge, free from doctrinal error. Throughout this paper, I have quoted the Catechism of the Catholic Church. This is denoted by CCC followed by a paragraph number. I have also used the Holy Bible as a source. It is credible because it is the Word of God. It is also one of the sources of Catholic doctrine. To better understand and respect life, proper value must be placed on the family unit. The family is the most basic society. Without it, society would be destroyed. By properly understanding family and society, we can see how euthanasia, abortion, and suicide are all forms of murder. Every individual has dignity, and these practices are contrary to that dignity. Life is holy. It must be respected from conception until natural death. God is the giver of life, and he gives all humans, both born and unborn, a certain holiness and dignity that needs to be honored. All humans have an inalienable right to life.
Research Paper Malneritch 2 Respect for life comes from a proper understanding of family. Children should be viewed as gifts from God. Modern society, however, often views children as a nuisance. Children are seen as an obstacle to their parents freedom and careers. Too much emphasis is put on the sacrifice of raising a child, and not enough on the gift and the joy. "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear." (1 Jn 4:18) Children are not property. They are created by God in His image and are souls gifted to us. It is our responsibility to care for them. They are the ultimate gift of marriage. Children assist in teaching their siblings and their parents virtues. They all learn to be responsible and patient. They learn sacrifice, how to share, and how to love. Family is at the core of human experience. (Hahn, S., 11) The Trinity is the key to understanding the family. God, Who is the Trinity, is the perfect example of a family. He is three divine Persons Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each of the three Persons has perfect love for the others. The Father generates the Son, Who is begotten of the Father. The Holy Spirit is the love between the Father and Son. This love is so great that it is another Person. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. By seeing the relationship amongst these Persons, one can see the most perfect model of a family.
Research Paper Malneritch 3 An improper understanding of family results in such malpractices as contraception and abortion. These destroy the family. Just as the Holy Spirit is the love between the Father and the Son, children are the result of the married couple s love and the reason for the act of marriage. As the word implies, contraception is against conception. It is rejecting the child. It is deliberately ruining the life-giving nature of the act of marriage. Contraception is dangerous to society, anti-woman, and not life-giving. It also often leads to abortion in cases in which the contraception did not work properly. Childbearing is sacred and is a natural function of women, as it says in Romans 1:25-27. 1 Timothy 2:11-15 says that women are saved through childbearing. The parents love of each other should be selfgiving, and there should be a spirit of generosity. Life should come from marriage. In Hosea 9:10-17, Israel was punished with childlessness, showing how childbearing is sacred. In Genesis 38:8-10, we find that God slew Onan for the use of contraception. There are also instances in Galations 5:20, Revelations 9:21, and 21:8 where potions were condemned. By reading the original Greek word for this, pharmakeia, we know that these potions were abortifacient in nature.
Research Paper Malneritch 4 Abortion, euthanasia, and suicide are all forms of murder and morally wrong. All humans have an inalienable right to life which means that no one, not even the individual himself, has a right to destroy his life. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church states: Everyone is responsible for his life before God Who has given it to him. It is God Who remains the Sovereign Master of life. We are obliged to accept life gratefully and preserve it for his honor and the salvation of our souls. We are stewards, not owners, of the life God has entrusted to us. It is not ours to dispose of. Suicide contradicts the natural inclination of the human being to preserve and perpetuate his life. It is gravely contrary to the just love of self. It likewise offends love of neighbor because it unjustly breaks the ties of solidarity with family, nation, and other human societies to which we continue to have obligations. Suicide is contrary to love for the living God. (CCC 2280-2281) Therefore, the Catholic Church rightly concludes that [s]uicide is seriously contrary to justice, hope, and charity. It is forbidden by the fifth commandment. (CCC 2325) Likewise, euthanasia is homicide, even when done with good intentions, because it contradicts the dignity of the human person being euthanized. It also disrespects God Who created the person. The Catechism states that refusal of over-zealous treatment is allowed since one is not willing to cause death. One s inability to impede it is merely accepted. The decisions should be made by the patient if he is competent and able or, if not, by those legally entitled to act for the patient,
Research Paper Malneritch 5 whose reasonable will and legitimate interest must always be respected. Even if death is thought to be imminent, the ordinary care owed to a sick person cannot be legitimately interrupted. Painkillers are fine, even if they risk shortening the person s life, if death is not willed as either an end or a means, but only foreseen and tolerated as inevitable. Palliative care is encouraged. (CCC 2278-2279) Even people with disabilities or weakened lives deserve special respect and should be assisted in living lives that are as normal as possible. (CCC 2276) In the same way, abortion is a morally unacceptable malpractice. It too is the slaughter of innocent human persons. People have, from the moment of conception, a right to live. The life of the unborn baby belongs to God. It is not the place of anyone else to decide whether or not the individual should live or die. We have the mission of safeguarding life from the moment of conception. A human first becomes a human at the moment of conception. This is a scientifically proven fact. At conception, the cells of this new human being begin to divide and the person grows. In a few weeks, he or she starts to develop internal organs. Clearly, this person is not an extension of the
Research Paper Malneritch 6 mother s body, but a wholly separate individual who relies on the mother for nourishment just as a baby already born would. Since it must be treated from conception as a person, the embryo must be defended in its integrity, cared for, and healed, as far as possible; like any other human being. (CCC 2274) From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life. (CCC 2270) God knows everyone before they are born. Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you. (Jer 1:5) Abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes. (CCC 2271) The Catholic Church has, since it was founded in the first century, held that every abortion is morally evil. This dogma has never changed, and it never will or can change. (CCC 2271) Abortion, whether willed as an end or a means, is always seriously against moral law. The Church enforces excommunication as a penalty for this crime. (CCC 2322) Human life is God-given and has a sanctity. "When truth in the fullness of its goodness and beauty is not being pursued, but rather scientific and technological progress for its own sake, utilitarianism can result." This causes society to degenerate. A society like this embraces sterility and
Research Paper Malneritch 7 promotes childlessness. (Hahn, K., 53) When culture becomes utilitarian, persons are reduced to things, women become objects of men, children supposedly hinder parents; family becomes an obstacle to freedom. There are woeful consequences to misunderstanding the family. Part of our mission is to restore the culture of life and love. God created man in His image, in the divine image He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them saying: Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it (Gen 1:27-28) All human life, from the moment of conception until natural death, is sacred because the human person has been willed for its own sake in God s image, and it requires God s creative action. It is always in a special relationship with God, Who is its only end. (CCC 2319 & 2258) In [God s] hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind. (Job 12:10) God alone is the Lord of life from its beginning until its end: no one can under any circumstance claim for himself the right to directly destroy an innocent human being. (CCC 2258) Thus abortion, euthanasia, and suicide are forms of murder and thus are totally immoral. The human rights are part of human nature and are thus not dependent on individuals, the state, or parents, et cetera. Civil authority should thus respect the right to life of all people. (CCC 2273)
Research Paper Malneritch 8 We can see, therefore, that our culture is greatly straying from the path of holiness and has become a culture of death by neglecting to hold human life in high esteem. A truly sovereign and spiritually rigorous nation is always made up of strong families who are aware of their vocation and mission in history. Removing the family down to a subordinate or secondary role is dangerous to society. (Hahn, K., 53) The right to life is hence a constitutive component of any civil culture and its statutes. We need, therefore, to begin fighting for those with endangered lives. The unborn have just as much of a right to live as anyone already born. There is no difference between an embryo one day old and a man fifty years old except that the baby is still a child growing and the man has already ceased growing. I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice, and cleaving to him; for that means life to you and length of days, that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them. (Deut 30:19-20) Because a human embryo is a human being and therefore has a soul, abortion is murderously wrong. Euthanasia is also wrong because the people being euthanized are still human persons as well with all the same rights to life and dignity. Suicide is likewise wrong. Because we do not own our lives,
Research Paper Malneritch 9 we are mere caretakers of them and suicide goes against love of neighbor, self, and God. Every person has a holy dignity that must be reverenced.
Research Paper Malneritch 10 Works Cited God. Holy Bible. Hahn, Kimberly. Life-Giving Love. Ann Arbor: Servant Publications, 2001. Hahn, Scott. First Comes Love. New York: Doubleday, 2002. Ratzinger, Joseph Cardinal, et al. Catechism of the Catholic Church. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1994.