"I don’t want the Church to be caught sleeping again…"
This is the heartfelt desire which the man who was a key player in bringing
us legal abortion,
Dr. Bernard Nathanson, has
expressed to me regarding the bioethical challenges of the 21st
century. Dr. Nathanson maintains that in the '60's, he and his colleagues at
NARAL (at that time, the "National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws")
literally "stole the issue" from the Church. In speaking to clergy, he says, "We
would never have gotten away with what we did if you had been united,
purposeful, and strong."
The new bioethical challenges have shaped the news and everyday discourse:
embryonic stem cell research, genetic manipulation, and human cloning. Those who
want to advance science-fiction agendas will still not get away with what
they are doing if the Church is united, purposeful, and strong.
One of the many key insights which
Evangelium vitae provides about these issues is a play on words. The
English word "matter" and the Latin word "mater" ("mother") express two ways of
looking at creation, including human life. The Holy Father writes, "[O]nce all
reference to God has been removed, it is not surprising that the meaning of
everything else becomes profoundly distorted. Nature itself, from being
"mater" (mother), is now reduced to being "matter", and is subjected to
every kind of manipulation" (n.22).
To put this another way, we can look at creation and consider how useful
it is, or we can look at creation and reverently marvel at it. These two visions
are not mutually exclusive. To marvel at the beauty of a tree doesn't mean we
can't use it for lumber. But the danger lies in reducing our vision
entirely to "matter." This is particularly dangerous when it comes to human
life, because a person is not a thing, and is never to be treated as a thing.
The drive to "use" embryos and their cells, and to "manipulate" the genetic
code, necessarily puts the person in the category of a thing, despite any
"good intentions."
The new bioethical challenges do not replace abortion as a central focus,
because the assertion in
Roe vs. Wade that "the word person…does not include the unborn" provides
the foundation for the type of thinking behind these new challenges. As our
bishops have pointed out, "Nations are not machines or equations. They are like
ecosystems. A people's habits, beliefs, values and institutions intertwine like
a root system. Poisoning one part will eventually poison it all... So it is with
the legacy of Roe vs. Wade" (Living
the Gospel of Life, 1998, n.9).
The way out of this mess is not going to be easy. Sleeping is easy; vigilance
has a price. Fundamentally, if the Church is not to be caught asleep again, we
have to prioritize our activities, and devote more resources to both
education and activism in the defense of life. This work cannot be a hobby; it
will require us to give everything. But that should sound familiar to
Christians.
