Regarding the Reuters article “Amnesty backs right to abortion despite church” [Archives:2007/1081/Letters]

By: Paul Kokoski.
[email protected]’,0,’I wish to commend the Vatican, and more recently Catholic Bishop Michael Evans of East Anglia for condemning Amnesty International’s new pro-abortion policy. Amnesty has fallen victim to a distorted rationale that tends to place a higher priority on human suffering than on life itself. Contrary to Amnesty’s new position, human welfare depends upon a shared responsibility that involves moral limits. There are no “small” murders. The respect for every human life is an essential condition if a societal life worthy of the name is to be possible. When man”s conscience loses respect for life as something sacred, he inevitably ends by losing his own identity.

While the term “choice” may sound democratic the person who opts for abortion is neglecting to consider the fundamental right to life of the mother”s unborn fetus. We must help those who are suffering, but we may not use a good end to justify an evil means. Human beings are not raw materials to be exploited or commodities that can be bought and sold. To suggest otherwise is to endorse a macabre interpretation of progress. To claim the right to abortion and to recognize that right in law, means to attribute to human freedom a perverse and evil significance: that of an absolute power over others and against others. This is the death of true freedom.

With respectful and cordial best wishes I remain.

[Archives:2007/1081/Letters]