Now that the semester is over, I will have some time to post some of what I have learned. Below is a summary of a project that I did on Cardinal Bernardin's Consistent Ethic of Life. I did it for a Medical Ethics class with Prof. Regina Wolfe. My apologies, everything was cited in Pages as footnotes, these have not copied. I have done my best to re-cite everything.
If you would like more information about any of it, send me an e-mail and I will refine my sources! The bibliography has been posted to the bottom of the page!
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The Catholic Church is very clear about our belief in the sacredness of human life. We believe that life is sacred because, from the beginning, it is created by and destined to return to God. Because God is the author and sustainer of life, no human being has the right to take an innocent life.
“Precisely because life is sacred, the taking of even one human life,” innocent or not, “is a momentous event (Cardinal Bernardin).” And although in our sinful world there are a small number of excpetions where a non-innocent life may have to be taken, there should always be a presumption AGAINST doing so. This means, that if there is any way to avoid taking a life, it should be fully explored and deeply considered.
Cardinal Bernardin’s legacy is known as “The Consistent Ethic of Life.” This is an ethic that connects all assaults on the sanctity of human life together in one framework. Some of these issues include (Gannon Lecture):
- Abortion
- Euthanasia
- Capital Punishment
- Nuclear Weapons
- War
Now of course each of these individual issues are unique in their own way and can not be made into one uniform issue.
For example, abortion and euthanasia are always wrong. There is no circumstance where the direct taking of an innocent human life is morally acceptable.
War and capital punishment are different, however, because they don’t deal with the taking of INNOCENT human life. The Church teaches that societies have the right to protect themselves from aggression and victimization by engaging in war against violent adversaries and by killing those criminals too dangerous to confine to jail.
But abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment and war are connected because they all involve the taking of human life... which is sacred. Cardinal Bernardin taught that the taking of a human life is always a momentous event; so the presumption should always be AGAINST the taking of a human life.
So, even if war and capital punishment are the right of the state, there are most likely situations where the state does not have the moral grounds to exercise those rights (JP2, Bernardin, Shannon). For example, the state cannot morally wage war without first exploring every possible avenue of diplomacy. Also, the state may not be able to morally execute a prisoner without first determining it absolutely beyond the state’s capacity to safely house the criminal away from others.
So even though different; abortion, war, capital punishment and euthanasia, all deal with the issue of the sanctity of life and thus should be seen as part of a larger problem in our society... a lack of respect for the sanctity of human life.
Thomas Shannon writes that, “the viability of a principle of the sacredness of life depends on consistency of application accross a broad range of diverse questions and problems, but questions and problems that are linked by their relation to the value of life.” A moral position that is inconsistent is not only incoherent, but also inauthentic. For example, when speaking about abortion, Bernardin asked, “What happens when protection of the right to life is selective, when the right to life is denied to inherently vulnerable and dependent unborn life?” A moral principle as important as the sanctity of life cannot be compromised, its integrity must remain intact.
At first, the Consistent Ethic of Life makes it sound like each of us must become an advocate for every life issue, but Cardinal Bernardin knew that this would be impossible. However, he did believe that all life advocates should know and be able to articulate the connections between their efforts on many different issues. In short, all life advocates, regardless of the individual issues they advocate, should preach a consistent ethic of life (Wade Lecture).
In addition to informing the efforts of pro-life advocates and clarifying Church teaching on Life, Cardinal Bernardin believed that the Consistent Ethic of Life could help individuals become responsibly involved in the political process. The Consistent Ethic of Life can serve as a standard to test public policy, party platforms and the suitability of candidates for political office.
In fact, a true Consistent Ethic of Life extends beyond direct assaults on human life and should incorporate quality of life considerations as well (Gannon Lecture). After all, if life is truly sacred, then not only can we not destroy it, but we also must make great efforts to care for it. Cardinal Bernardin said, “Those who defend the right to life of the weakest among us must be equally visible in support of quality of life of the powerless among us: the old and the young, the hungry and the homeless, the undocumented immigrant and the unemployed worker.”
With this in mind, the Consistent Ethic of Life calls us to also work for social justice in the areas of:
- Poverty
- Health Care Access and Insurance Coverage
- Protection of the Environment
- School Reform
- Immigration Reform
- Housing and Urban Development
- Employment Conditions and the Rights of Workers
- Food Availability and Redistribution
- Etc., Etc., Etc.!!!!
So in summary, the Consistent Ethic of Life provides us with a clear way to understand, communicate, and to implement the Church’s fundamental belief in the sanctity of human life. It shows that while the Church does have many opinions on many different life-related issues, there are fundamental beliefs that serve as undercurrents among all of these positions; like threads through a seamless garment.
To read some of Cardinal Bernardin’s own words on the Consistent Ethic of Life, I recommend The Seamless Garment: Writings on the Consistent Ethic of Life, edited by Thomas A. Nairn and published by Orbis Books.
SOURCES
Bernardin, Cardinal Joseph. “A Consistent Ethic of Life: An American Catholic Dialogue (Gannon Lecture, Fordham University, December 6, 1983).” In The Seamless Garment: Writings on the Consistent Ethic of Life, edited by Thomas A. Nairn, 7-14. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2008.
Bernardin, Cardinal Joseph. “A Consistent Ethic of Life: Continuing the Dialogue (The William Wade Lecture Series, St. Louis University, March 11, 1984).” In The Seamless Garment: Writings on the Consistent Ethic of Life, edited by Thomas A. Nairn, 15-20. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2008.
Shannon, Thomas A. “Introduction: An Overview of the Key Ideas of the Consistent Ethic of Life.” In The Seamless Garment: Writings on the Consistent Ethic of Life, edited by Thomas A. Nairn, 1-6. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2008.
Walter, James J. “Horizon Analysis and Moral Stance: An Interpretation of Cardinal Bernardin’s ‘Consistent Ethic of Life.’” In Contemporary Issues in Bioethics: A Catholic Perspective, eds. James J. Walter and Thomas A. Shannon, 33-48. New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc.: 2005.
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