Last month, Brother Joseph Than, a member of the Legion of Christ, physician, and bioethicist gave a talk to a group of Catholics in Lexington, Ky., on the two competing views of the human nature dominant in our society. The one view, of course, is the Catholic view (also held by many who are not Catholic) which sees inherent dignity in the individual. “The human person is an end in itself, never to be used as a means,” said Brother Than. And he added that human beings are not to be treated as merchandise or classified as non-human or sub-human.
The opposing view, he said, is the “liberal utilitarian” one, which sees a human being entirely in terms of the capacity to think, to be independent, to feel and relate to others, and to be free from suffering, without intrinsic dignity. In this view some humans are not yet capable of these capacities and thus not a person, and some have lost the capacities. This view is loathe to make any judgments about right or wrong. From these two opposing positions we see the development of a culture of life and a culture of death, to use the expression of Pope John Paul II.
News reports frequently show us the results of the secular view. For example, in April, English researchers produced “hybrid embryos.” The scientists took cow eggs, removed the DNA and fertilized them with human sperm, which produced embryos “99 percent human.” The purpose of the experiment was to obtain “stem cells” for other kinds of experimentation. In the process, of course, human life (99 percent human) is destroyed. (Such experiments are in reality the process of “cloning,” i.e. producing human beings with only one parent, the provider of the sperm.)
In May the British Parliament in a 290-222 vote gave formal approval for such experimentation, with the proviso that the embryos had to be destroyed in 14 days and could not be used for pregnancy. A number of the Members of Parliament spoke of the decision as giving permission for “Frankenstein experiments” and the head of the Pontifical Academy for Life characterized it as a “monstrous attack on human dignity.”
(Incidentally, some scientists in Britain have also been discussing recently the feasibility of creating human-ape hybrids through the insemination of a female chimpanzee with human sperm.)
Another sign of the turning upside-down of the Judeo-Christian world view is the claim in May by a group of Swiss researchers that plants have a right to life. We know that claims have been made for years by followers of Peter Singer that animals have rights and that some animals should be classified as “humans” (and that some humans should be declassified from the category of human). Now comes the next logical step in the topsy-turvy world of secular ethics — plants too have rights. A Swiss federal ethics committee condemned the
“decapitation” of flowers. Wesley Smith, a good bioethicist, rightly remarked about this view: “It is a symptom of a cultural disease that has infected Western civilization. It reflects the triumph of a radical anthropomorphism that views elements of the natural world as morally equivalent to people.” And Smith added that once the value and dignity of human beings are diminished by abortion, euthanasia, etc., (and we could add “hybrid embryos”), then it becomes easy to give fauna and flora rights similar to those of humans.
This past Mother’s Day, I was taken aback by another example of secular thinking. The actresses Gwyneth Paltrow and Blythe Danner sent out an e-mail appeal asking financial support for Planned Parenthood, which is the largest provider of abortions in the United States. The appeal stated: “We think that Mother’s Day is the perfect time to think about what it means to support mothers. There is no organization that we know of that supports motherhood and all that it means more than Planned Parenthood.” What irony! What does motherhood mean to the millions of children who are aborted?
As I read these news items, recent words of Pope Benedict echoed in my mind: “The failure of moral guidance (threatens) the very basis of coexistence and the future of society.”
Father John A. Leies, SM, STD, is president emeritus of St. Mary’s University in San Antonio and was formerly dean of the Theology Department there.