DEACON FOR LIFE

Were there to be no support in the whole history of ethical and moral thought, were there no acknowledged confirmation from medical science, were the history of legal opinion to the contrary, we would still have to conclude on the basis of God's Holy Word that the unborn child is a person in the sight of God. He is protected by the sanctity of life graciously given to each individual by the Creator, Who alone places His image upon man and grants them any right to life which they have.

Monday, July 30, 2007

FROM CALIFORNIA CATHOLIC DAILY:

Amnesty International defiant on abortion

Despite objections from Catholic leaders, human rights group won’t back down

(CNA) -- Amnesty International remains defiant about its new pro-abortion stance despite receiving worldwide criticism for its decision to abandon the group’s long standing neutrality on the issue, and has decided instead to embrace abortion as a human right.

Amnesty was founded in 1961 by a Catholic convert, the late Peter Benenson, and has enjoyed the support of Catholic organizations and individuals in its campaigns against torture and capital punishment. It has also received praise in the past for staying clear of the abortion issue, which the organization has viewed as "outside its mandate" for the last 50 years.

However, after a two-year consultation process that many of the 2.2 million Amnesty members have described as "biased, flawed" and "prejudiced in favor of abortion," AI decided to turn abortion into a "human right."

From now on, AI will push for the legalization of abortion in the 97 countries that outlaw abortion.

The Amnesty decision, which will be launched officially on Aug. 11 in Mexico City, has been described as a betrayal of its mission" by Cardinal Renato Martino. In a June 14 interview with the National Catholic Register, he said that when Benenson founded the movement the mission was clear: "to witness to the inalienable rights of all human beings," and that included the unborn.

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LIFE IS SACRED

An example of the traditional magisterial teaching which indicates that it is never morally licit to intentionally kill a child through abortion in order to “save the life of its mother” comes from the teaching of Pope Pius XII:

“Every human being, even the infant in the mother's womb, has the right to life immediately from God, not from the parent or any human society or authority. Therefore, there is no man, no human authority, no science, no medical, eugenic, social, economic or moral ‘indication’ that can show or give valid juridical title for direct deliberate disposition concerning an innocent human life-which is to say, a disposition that aims at its destruction either as an end in itself or as the means of attaining another end that is perhaps in no way illicit itself. Thus, for example, to save the life of the mother is a most noble end, but the direct killing of the child as a means to this end is not licit.”