The Fundamental Right to Life

There are only three months until the Presidential election. Since Catholics have a moral obligation to educate themselves on the issues and to vote, we look at what the Catholic bishops of the United States have to say about participation in the political process in their document Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship.

 “There are some things we must never do,” the bishops instruct, “as individuals or as a society, because they are always incompatible with love of God and neighbor. Such actions are so deeply flawed that they are always opposed to the authentic good of persons. These are called “intrinsically evil” actions. They must always be rejected and opposed and must never be supported or condoned. A prime example is the intentional taking of human life, as in abortion and euthanasia. In our nation, “Abortion and euthanasia have become preeminent threats to human dignity because they directly attack life itself, the most fundamental human good and the condition for all others” (Living the Gospel of Life, no. 5). It is a mistake with grave moral consequences to treat the destruction of innocent human life merely as a matter of individual choice. A legal system that violates the basic right of life on the grounds of choice is fundamentally flawed.

“Direct threats to the sanctity and dignity of human life, such as human cloning and destructive research on human embryos, are also intrinsically evil. These must always be opposed. Other direct assaults on innocent human life and violations of human dignity such as genocide, torture, racism, and the targeting of noncombatants in acts of terror or war, can never be justified.”

The bishops point out that “The right to life implies and is linked to other human rights – to the basic goods that every human person needs to live and thrive … As Blessed Pope John XXIII taught, “(Each of us) has the right to life, to bodily integrity, and to the means which are suitable for the proper development of life; these are primarily food, clothing, shelter, rest, medical care, and, finally, the necessary social services” (Pacem in Terris, no. 11).

 “Above all, the common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights – for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture – is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition for all other personal rights, is not defended with maximum determination. (Christifideles Laici, no. 38.)”

In the hierarchy of basic rights, the bishops are saying, the rest doesn’t matter if the fundamental right to life is denied. As Catholics head to the polls in November, they are urged to consider Church teaching on respecting life from conception to natural death.

From Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, USCCB