We (being McCain/ Palin) are going to win NC!!! However the Bishops are speaking there too. Whispers notes this morning
On a related note, with their state a sudden toss-up, potentially heading blue for the first time since 1976 (and, er, no less than Jesse Helms' Senate seat now hanging in the balance, to boot) the bishops of North Carolina have released a last-minute joint letter to remind their quickly-growing flocks that "the intentional destruction of innocent human life is an intrinsic evil that can never be supported, and the protection of human life from conception until natural death is preeminent among our moral values."In the hierarchy of truths," Bishops Peter Jugis of Charlotte and Michael Burbidge of Raleigh added, "this truth is never morally equivalent to all the other issues embraced under a consistent ethic of life."
More than one way to kill.
ReplyDeleteA political candidate’s position on abortion has become the de facto litmus test of morality, and of respect for life. However, the data show that economic policies, health care and many other issues may be just as deadly. Consider the matter of health care. For a study of life expectancy in the United States published in PLoS Medicine in 2006, Harvard Professor Christopher Murray analyzed 8 years of census and health statistics data. He found an astonishing 35 year gap - in life expectancy based on county of residence, income, and other social factors. In my home county, Fairfax Virginia, life expectancy is among the top ten in the US about 81 years. Life expectancy in counties at the bottom is only 46 years, shorter than that in many developing countries! This isn’t a new finding - many other studies reported similar results. There are several reasons for such early death, but socioeconomic status and access to health care are the heavyweights. Thus, health care in particular and many other policy differences between the political parties can have as profound an influence on life as abortion. Clearly, the moral justification for voting cannot be based on a single issue.
As a Catholic, I am opposed to abortion and efforts to reduce abortions must continue. However, the pro-life concept must encompass all causes of death, not only abortion. The positions the Democratic Party has held with respect to universal health care, taxation, unemployment, war and torture, all of which have life-or-death consequences, are more consistently pro-life than those of the Republicans. My conscience requires that I vote for Barack Obama, and I will do so with great enthusiasm and hope.
Peter Kaufmann, Ph.D.
Past President, Society of Behavioral Medicine
Secretary, International Society of Behavioral Medicine
The views expressed above are not necessarily those of the SBM or ISBM.