A Moral Obligation to Refuse

The prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, Cardinal Antonio Canizares, speaking about contemporary Spanish laws, that “must protect the defenseless,” are instead “used today to eliminate those who are weak, innocent and defenseless-.Medicine must be for curing and not for killing. Laws must serve to protect the defenseless but they are being used to kill these human beings. The present situation reminds us precisely of the gravity of abortion, a reality that reflects so many things. Without a doubt nothing else more clearly manifests the crisis of humanity we are suffering.” In the United States, we read about laws to force unwanted medical treatment on reluctant patients and laws to force medical personnel to perform morally repugnant “procedures.” Science contemplates affronts to the dignity of the human person – harvested organs, human experimentation, callous clinical murder – unimaginable a generation ago.