Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Professor Arkes on Abortion/Slavery...

It's getting to be (happy) habit for us to link to "The Catholic Thing."

This is from today's article "One Issue Among Many?" by Professor Hadley Arkes:

"In the season of politics upon us now, we are faced again with the question of explaining why “this issue” - slavery or abortion - is not just one among several, plausible issues, but the issue that must be more central than anything else...

In politics we are ever dealing with the righting of wrongs, the relief of injuries, the doing of justice - whether in health care, the laying of taxes, or hazarding young men in war. Every one of these issues hinges on the prior question of just what constitutes the “person” who is the bearer of these interests and rights - and the object of our concern. The question of slavery was central in the way that others were not because it touched the core of the question that affected the rights of everyone else on every other issue. And yet, 150 years later, a population showing far higher levels of formal education cannot quite grasp the same point when it comes to them as a matter of recognizing the human standing of our own offspring."

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