A
Ani_Ibi
Guest
Righting a wrong never an easy fight
Rory Leishman, London Free Press 2005-06-07
canoe.ca/NewsStand/Columnists/London/Rory_Leishman/2005/06/07/1074752.html
It seems that every generation is fated to confront one overwhelming moral wrong.
In the lifetime of Sir William Wilberforce, that wrong was slavery. To his everlasting credit, Wilberforce led the campaign that culminated with the adoption of a parliamentary resolution in 1833 that abolished slavery throughout the British Empire.
The victory did not come easily. It required almost 50 years of unremitting effort by Wilberforce and fellow members of the Clapham Sect, a group of evangelical members of the Anglican Church. For his efforts, Wilberforce was widely denounced as a religious fanatic and moral absolutist who was out to cripple the British economy.
Today, there is virtually unanimous agreement throughout the Western world that Wilberforce was right. Everyone, with the exception of some obtuse bioethicists who would not recognize an absolute moral rule if they tripped over it, firmly understands slavery is, was and will forever remain a wrong that can’t be justified.
Let us now suppose, that we are living in Britain at the beginning of the 19th century and that some British university has resolved to confer an honorary doctorate on a prominent slave trader? Would we want to make a financial donation to that university? Surely not.
Why, then, would we now want to make a financial donation to the University of Western Ontario? Why would we want to have a child enrol at a school that is conferring an honorary doctorate on abortion advocate Dr. Henry Morgentaler.
Abortion, like slavery, is, was and will forever remain a grave moral disorder that can never be justified, yet anyone who upholds this truth is bound to be widely derided as a religious fanatic and moral absolutist.
Granted, people who understand that abortion and slavery are always wrong might reasonably be described as moral absolutists. But these people do not all believe in God. Take, for example, Nat Hentoff, the prominent New York intellectual. He proudly describes himself as a “Jewish, atheist, civil libertarian, left-wing, pro-lifer.”
On the basis of reason alone, he understands that the deliberate destruction of an innocent human being can never be justified.
Eric Cohen is an authority on Jewish law. Like Hentoff, he deplores not only abortion, but also the deliberate destruction of human beings for medical research.
Writing in the current edition of First Things, Cohen notes: “As Jews, we know well what it means to treat some human lives as less than human, or some human beings are there for experimentation. We know the moral hazards of justifying such dehumanizing violations on the grounds that embryos are ‘going to die anyway,’ just the way some Nazi doctors justified their inhuman experiments.” Cohen then emphasizes: “Embryo destruction is not the moral equivalent of the Holocaust, but the lesson of the Holocaust should give us the wisdom to oppose making embryo destruction the new foundations of modern medicine. That . . . is the heart of Jewish wisdom.”
Morgentaler has grasped at least part of that wisdom: specifically, that late-term abortions are wrong. In an interview last year, he told CTV News that when a woman seeks an abortion at one of his clinics after 24 weeks, “we usually counsel the woman to continue the pregnancy and put it up for adoption if she is unable to care for it.” Why, then, can Morgentaler not accept the self-evident truth that from day one, all babies in the womb have an inalienable right to life?
The London and Area Right to Life Association is planning a mammoth demonstration outside Alumni Hall in the morning of June 16, the day Morgentaler is slated to receive his honorary degree. Let that demonstration be peaceful. Let the demonstrators pray for Morgentaler. And let them present a compelling witness to the truth that abortion, like slavery, is a wrong that can never be justified.
Can there be an underground railroad for the unborn? If so, what does it look like?
Rory Leishman, London Free Press 2005-06-07
canoe.ca/NewsStand/Columnists/London/Rory_Leishman/2005/06/07/1074752.html
It seems that every generation is fated to confront one overwhelming moral wrong.
In the lifetime of Sir William Wilberforce, that wrong was slavery. To his everlasting credit, Wilberforce led the campaign that culminated with the adoption of a parliamentary resolution in 1833 that abolished slavery throughout the British Empire.
The victory did not come easily. It required almost 50 years of unremitting effort by Wilberforce and fellow members of the Clapham Sect, a group of evangelical members of the Anglican Church. For his efforts, Wilberforce was widely denounced as a religious fanatic and moral absolutist who was out to cripple the British economy.
Today, there is virtually unanimous agreement throughout the Western world that Wilberforce was right. Everyone, with the exception of some obtuse bioethicists who would not recognize an absolute moral rule if they tripped over it, firmly understands slavery is, was and will forever remain a wrong that can’t be justified.
Let us now suppose, that we are living in Britain at the beginning of the 19th century and that some British university has resolved to confer an honorary doctorate on a prominent slave trader? Would we want to make a financial donation to that university? Surely not.
Why, then, would we now want to make a financial donation to the University of Western Ontario? Why would we want to have a child enrol at a school that is conferring an honorary doctorate on abortion advocate Dr. Henry Morgentaler.
Abortion, like slavery, is, was and will forever remain a grave moral disorder that can never be justified, yet anyone who upholds this truth is bound to be widely derided as a religious fanatic and moral absolutist.
Granted, people who understand that abortion and slavery are always wrong might reasonably be described as moral absolutists. But these people do not all believe in God. Take, for example, Nat Hentoff, the prominent New York intellectual. He proudly describes himself as a “Jewish, atheist, civil libertarian, left-wing, pro-lifer.”
On the basis of reason alone, he understands that the deliberate destruction of an innocent human being can never be justified.
Eric Cohen is an authority on Jewish law. Like Hentoff, he deplores not only abortion, but also the deliberate destruction of human beings for medical research.
Writing in the current edition of First Things, Cohen notes: “As Jews, we know well what it means to treat some human lives as less than human, or some human beings are there for experimentation. We know the moral hazards of justifying such dehumanizing violations on the grounds that embryos are ‘going to die anyway,’ just the way some Nazi doctors justified their inhuman experiments.” Cohen then emphasizes: “Embryo destruction is not the moral equivalent of the Holocaust, but the lesson of the Holocaust should give us the wisdom to oppose making embryo destruction the new foundations of modern medicine. That . . . is the heart of Jewish wisdom.”
Morgentaler has grasped at least part of that wisdom: specifically, that late-term abortions are wrong. In an interview last year, he told CTV News that when a woman seeks an abortion at one of his clinics after 24 weeks, “we usually counsel the woman to continue the pregnancy and put it up for adoption if she is unable to care for it.” Why, then, can Morgentaler not accept the self-evident truth that from day one, all babies in the womb have an inalienable right to life?
The London and Area Right to Life Association is planning a mammoth demonstration outside Alumni Hall in the morning of June 16, the day Morgentaler is slated to receive his honorary degree. Let that demonstration be peaceful. Let the demonstrators pray for Morgentaler. And let them present a compelling witness to the truth that abortion, like slavery, is a wrong that can never be justified.
Can there be an underground railroad for the unborn? If so, what does it look like?