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Presentation outlining Catholic teaching on various life issues, including abortion, contraception, assisted-suicide, etc.
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Understanding the stakes
Stephen Frezza, Ph.D., C.S.D.P.
Gannon University
Human Life
Start of Life• Abortion Contraception
• Artificial Insemination
End of Life• Genocide Ethnic Cleansing
• Death Penalty Assisted Suicide
Life is transferred…
Conception: moment • when a sperm cell breaches
the ovum, or egg; zygote
• Initial stage of development
for human growth
• Genetically distinct from
mother and father
Days after Last Menstrual Period• 18-21: the heart beats
• 32: eyes are formed
• 38: upper lip formed
• 40: brain waves are measurable
• 44: arms and legs formed
• 48: beginnings of all internal structures present; child moves
• 56: embryo now called a fetus
• 63: sucking thumb, teeth forming
• 84-160: cries, feels pain
13 to less than 28 weeks• 13 - 3 in. & ½ oz., reflexes active
• 14 - fingerprints present
• 15 - grasp, grimace, frown, squint
• 16 - 6 in. & 6 oz., somersaults, mother feels movement
• 17 - hiccups, plays with umbilical cord
• 18 - hair and eyebrows growing
• 20 - recognizes mother’s voice
• 22 - responds to stories, music
• 24 - 1 lb., 85% survival rate
• 26 - responds to light, 1.5 to 2 lbs.
28 weeks to Delivery
• 28 - 2 lbs. & practicing
breathing
• 30 - growing rapidly, sleeps
90% of the time, has dreams
• 32 - urinates, 4 lbs.
• 34 - 5 lbs. 19.5 in, head into
pelvis
• 36 - 99% survival
• 38 - 1,000 times original size
• 40 - Birth - 7.5 lbs average
weight.
“The transmission of human life is a most
serious role in which married people
collaborate freely and responsibly with God
the Creator. It has always been a source of
great joy to them, even though it sometimes
entails many difficulties and hardships.”
Pope Paul VI
Why do we care?• Religious Reasons
• Personal Reasons
• Political Reasons
• Social Reasons
Who’s a Human Anyway?• Where we are?
• When we are?
• Genetics?
• How to distinguish?
• Who should decide?
“We no longer agree about the content of
dignity, because we no longer share ... a
'vision of what it means to be human'."
Diana Schaub, Political Scientist
Because one is human
Status mode
Comes with being a human
being
Depends on the circumstances
Conferred by others and can be taken away
Depends on what one can or cannot do
Comes with being able
to perform in a certain
way and not to perform
in other ways
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that
all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights, that among these are
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Declaration of Independence, 1776
Human life begins at conception• Unless… We don’t believe…
• Most science…
• Most religions…
Civil Right• The right to be born
Challenges:• Contraception
• Abortion
• In Vitro Fertilization
Abortion is the #1 moral issue of our time.
It has impacted and will impact your life in
one way or another – family, friends,
acquaintances.• Millions of people – 43% of US Women
• Economy
Inalienable rights• Life
• Liberty
• Pursuit of happiness = property
Rights in Conflict• Mother’s liberty versus
the child’s life
How to resolve rights conflicts?
Is it [birth control] an abortion?
Definitely not. An abortion kills the life of a baby after it has begun. It is dangerous to your life and health. It may make you sterile so that when you want a child you cannot have it. Birth control merely postpones the beginning of life.
Planned Parenthood Advertisement1964
Children are a gift (Ps. 128)
Each person is made in God’s image (Gen. 1:27)
‘Yeled’ - the Hebrew word for one borne or born – the unborn
Job the same person before he was born (Job 10:8-12)
Jeremiah - known in the womb (Jer. 1:5)
• The Greek – βρεϕος (Brěphŏs) Preborn John recognizes
Jesus shortly after his conception (Luke 1:41)
• Child sacrifice is condemned (Lev. 18:21, 20:1-5, Dt.
12:31)
• Punishment for
someone who causes
a miscarriage
intentionally (Ex.
21:22-25)
“The fundamental human right, the presupposition of every other right, is the right to life itself. This is true of life from the moment of conception until its natural end. Abortion consequently, cannot be a human right – it is the very opposite. It is a deep wound in society.”
Pope Benedict XVI
“And if we accept that a
mother can kill even her
own child, how can
we tell other people not to
kill one another?”
Blessed Mother Teresa of
Calcutta
Sterilization• Vasectomy & tubal ligation
Intra-Uterine Device (IUD)
Hormonal Contraceptives• Oral Pills, patches, vaginal rings, injections
Barrier Methods• Condoms, Diaphragms contraceptive sponge
Natural Family Planning
Government policies which attempt to force
people to undergo surgical sterilization
Eugenic, Social, Punitive reasons; International
funding
South Africa
Canada
United States
Nazi Germany
China
India
Peru
Russia
Sweden
Puerto Rico
Moral Evil• Deliberate violation of the design God built into the
human race (Natural Law)
• Contrary to Scripture (Gen. 38:8–10), Apostolic
Tradition, Early Reformers, Church teaching
Catholic Moral Teaching• Humane Vitae 1968
Illegal under Obama Care
Infidelity and moral decline
Lost Respect for Women
Abuse of Power
Unlimited Dominion
“I would now like to say a special word to women
who have had an abortion. The Church is aware of
the many factors which may have influenced your
decision, and she does not doubt that in many
cases it was a painful and even shattering decision.
The wound in your heart may not yet have healed.
Certainly what happened was and remains terribly
wrong. But do not give in to discouragement and do
not lose hope. ”
Pope John Paul II
Process by which an egg is fertilized by
sperm outside the body
Used most for pregnancy for:• Impotent male, using donor sperm
• Women with cervical issues
• Single woman without a male partner (sperm
donor)
• Female couples (sperm donor)
• Male couples (egg donor and surrogate mother)
Human life ends at natural death• Unless… We kill
Civil Right• The right to … die?
Challenges:• Genocide/Ethnic Cleansing
• Assisted Suicide
• Death Penalty
Armenia: 1,000,000 killed 1915-1923
China (Mao): 58,000,000 killed 1949-1969
USSR (Stalin): 20,000,000 killed 1932-1939
Holocaust: 5,700,000 killed 1933-1945
Khmer Rouge: 1,600,000 killed 1975-1978
Bosnia: 250,000 killed 1992-1995
Rwanda: 1,000,000 killed 1994
Somalia: 300,000 killed 1991-present
Darfur: ≥450,000 killed 2003-present
Systematic forced removal of ethnic or religious
groups from a given territory
Intent of creating a territory inhabited by people
of a homogeneous or pure ethnicity, religion,
culture, and history
Euthanasia • direct killing of a person, usually by injecting a
lethal substance
• legal in the Netherlands (no consent) legal in
Belgium and Luxembourg
Assisted suicide • one person providing the means and instructions
to help another person commit suicide
Executions are expensive• California spent ≥$4 billion on capital punishment since 1978
• Capital trials are 20 times more expensive
Capital punishment does not deter crime
Innocent people convicted and executed• Since 1978, 142 men and women have been released from
Death Row
Race plays a role in determining who dies• 82% of cases, race of the victim was found to influence the
likelihood of receiving the death penalty
The death penalty is applied at random. • 22,000 capital crimes ~100 people sentenced to death
Goes against many religions
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