Comments for Abortion and Justice at http://www.thecatholicthing.org , comment 1 to 8 out of 8 comments http://www.thecatholicthing.org Tue, 21 May 2013 19:18:44 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/abortion-and-justice.html#comment-6203 Of course the debate could well remain a dead end so long as we are wedded to the Kantian language of natural right. - Bill McCormick Thu, 03 Mar 2011 13:15:36 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/abortion-and-justice.html#comment-6202 Deb, you gladden my heart, dear. However, I wouldn't get quite ready to do that dance. I have a long way to go but I feel God's not finished with me yet. I was very much taken with the martyrdom of Pakistani Christian minority leader Shabaz Bhatti, who was gunned down this week. A video of his last remarks professing his love for Jesus and taking up the cross is viewable on The American Catholic. It really moved me. A truly brave man. - Grump Thu, 03 Mar 2011 07:40:57 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/abortion-and-justice.html#comment-6201 I sometimes wonder if a lot of the strength of the pro-choice movement derives from insinuating that the pro-life camp is misogynistic. It's always couched in terms of defending a "woman's" right to choose, as if pro-lifers would support abortions if men could get them. I would guess that if both men and women could bear children, then the moral issues at stake would be considered more clearly and dispassionately by the people who now consider themselves pro-choice. Legalized abortion would then not be seen as part of the struggle for women's rights and equality. After all there is no reason why the fact that only women can bear children is relevant to the morality of abortion. Just a thought. - Patrick Thu, 03 Mar 2011 06:17:50 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/abortion-and-justice.html#comment-6200 to my dear "ole grump," i can see you leaping at the sound of His Voice.....i know you will one day be filled with the Holy Spirit- ALL you long for! for your own Mother is praying for you and She will come out to serve you before it is "too late" - the Holy Scripture says that it has not begun to dawn on our imaginations what God has prepared for those who love Him. i love Him! you leaping has dawned on my imagination, therefore i guess it will be quite a dance! maybe even rival Kind David's dancing for joy.....i for one can't wait to clap and cheer on the sidelines of Glory. and one prayer from you may mean more than for those of us who so easily offer one up...so, please, pray for my intention. TY - debby Thu, 03 Mar 2011 05:25:14 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/abortion-and-justice.html#comment-6199 Not there yet, folks, but I love this passage... Luke 1:41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. - Grump Thu, 03 Mar 2011 04:19:51 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/abortion-and-justice.html#comment-6197 I would ask all of TCT readers and contributors to Please Pray for all the women and men who will be invited and hopefully attend a "Spanish version" of Rachel's Vineyard on March 12th. Within the Hispanic community, a woman who has an abortion suffers a stigma within her sub-culture different from what other women may go through: children are considered a type of wealth, a "notch" on a man's belt (he may be "father" to many children by many women and not be "husband" to any one woman), often traditionally Catholic but not as often catechized or having any understanding behind a "family tradition." All this to say that a Hispanic woman who faces her sin in procuring an abortion, has additional fears, even terror at play. Please my friends, brothers and sisters, pray one Hail Mary for these women and for those of us attempting to serve them and bring the graces of forgiveness and healing that God so longs to bestow. I thank you. - debby Thu, 03 Mar 2011 03:25:31 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/abortion-and-justice.html#comment-6196 I am constantly astonished by the way in which professed materialists reveal themselves to be thorough-going dualists, when it comes to what constitutes a human being as a bearer of rights and duties. They identify the self with “Mind” or “Consciousness” in a way that really does deserve the taunt of “a ghost in a machine.” Aristotle, the philosopher of common sense, called human beings “rational animals.” There is no mystery about what a (human) person is: we all understand expressions like, “the person over there,” or “Offences against the Person.” It means a living, human body. The “mind” is not a thing, but an hypostasized abstraction. Apart from a very academic quibble over monozygotic twins, the person, so defined, comes into being at conception. Even in the case of twinning, one has a living individual whole whose life is—all going well—to be the life of one or lives of more than one human being. As Tertullian (160-200) says in the Apologeticum (9:8) “To prevent a birth is to hasten homicide; nor does it matter whether you take away a life from one that is born, or destroy one that is coming to the birth. That is a human being which is going to be one; you have the fruit already in its seed.” That last remark, “etiam fructus omnis iam in semine,” is particularly prescient in one who knew nothing of genetics. - Michael PS Thu, 03 Mar 2011 02:31:44 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/abortion-and-justice.html#comment-6195 Some forty years ago I was very active in chess, and through that activity I met a physician and lawyer who were friends. The lawyer would argue for abortion and the doctor argued against it using this argument: At the moment of conception the gender is determined, the color of the eyes, if male, at what age he will begin to grow bald, the probable natural longevity of the person's life,the personality type was largely determined. All these were determined as from that point the foetus-child-adult would grow. All its genetic material was placed at conception. The doctor knew all this and yet, in time, he changed and became a successful abortionist with a practice on Central Park South in New York City. - Bill Thu, 03 Mar 2011 01:24:32 +0100