The War against Reason

It seems a cruel trick of history that we are being asked these questions just when we have lost our capacity to answer or even discuss them. Should we permit the farming of fetuses for neural tissue? Ought we to allow the use of laboratory-produced human embryos in medical experimentation or in the testing of drugs? Why not declare the comatose and terminally ill to be legally dead so that they can be used for spare parts to help others? Since courts are now allowing the withdrawal of food and hydration, would it not be more humane to take quick and direct action to bring “wrongful life” to an end? Given the scarcity of resources and the senseless increase of chronic diseases, would it not be advisable to decide that people of a certain age, say 85, will no longer be given lifeextending care?

These and many questions like them are now, or soon will be, in political play. They are called the “life questions,” and most politicians are terrified of them because they are inescapably moral questions, and nobody wants to get entangled in that can of worms. About morality we are, or pretend to be, tongue-tied and stammering, lest we be suspected of attempting to “impose our values” on somebody else.

RJ

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Richard John Neuhaus

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It seems a cruel trick of history that we are being asked these questions just when we have lost our capacity to answer or even discuss them. Should we permit the farming of fetuses for neural tissue? Ought we to allow the use of laboratory-produced human embryos in medical experimentation or in the testing of drugs? Why not declare the comatose and terminally ill to be legally dead so that they can be used for spare parts to help others? Since courts are now allowing the withdrawal of food and hydration, would it not be more humane to take quick and direct action to bring “wrongful life” to an end? Given the scarcity of resources and the senseless increase of chronic diseases, would it not be advisable to decide that people of a certain age, say 85, will no longer be given lifeextending care?

These and many questions like them are now, or soon will be, in political play. They are called the “life questions,” and most politicians are terrified of them because they are inescapably moral questions, and nobody wants to get entangled in that can of worms. About morality we are, or pretend to be, tongue-tied and stammering, lest we be suspected of attempting to “impose our values” on somebody else.