Life Issues

The President of the Catholic Health Association, Sister Carol Keehan, has declared support for the stalled health care reform bill in the US Senate. This puts her at odds with Catholic hierarchy, who oppose the bill due to concerns about abortion funding.

She said that issues about abortion can be overcome, well, later. This is not the way to make good law, Sister. Good law is clear from the start, or we risk wallowing in whatever future courts may make of it. It is irresponsible to say, essentially, just pass something and we'll deal with the details later. Details are what make law, law. Tomorrow cannot be held responsible for what poor laws we make today.

Fortunately, Sr. Keehan is not part of the Catholic teaching authority. Her views, so obviously liberal and aligned with the anti-Catholic Democratic Party, are not to be confused with those of the leaders of the Church. If you want to know what the Church thinks, look to them rather than those who differ.

There is no good trying to tie health care into what are so often blithely referred to as 'life issues'. There is only one true life issue: abortion. Once someone is born, we are not dealing with issues of life per se but rather of quality of life. That certain important human rights are involved in that area we cannot doubt. But once we begin to pass laws which address quality issues at the risk of endangering respect for human life at its most vulnerable, indeed that we begin to think of quality of life issues as more important than life itself, then we must ask ourselves whether we truly serve human purposes and needs.

With life, there is hope. We show no faith in the future when we forget that. We merely consign to our descendants the follies of our sin.