Problems of Death | Introduction
Each year, over 32,000 people commit suicide in the United States. In Oregon in 1997, 15 terminally ill patients took advantage of a newly enacted law legalizing physician-assisted suicide and committed suicide with doctor-prescribed lethal medication. Approximately 1.37 million abortions were performed in the United States in 1996. Finally, 74 prisoners were executed in the United States in 1997, while 3,335 more remained on death row.
Is there a relationship among these statistics? Many people believe there is. They contend that increased acceptance of abortion, physician-assisted suicide, and the death penalty are hallmarks of a “culture of death” that grips modern society. The following quote—excerpted from a speech given by Allan Carlson, president of the Howard Center for Family, Religion, and Society, at a meeting of pro-life leaders on January 9, 1998—typifies this point of view:
We gather to mark the 25th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision by the United States Supreme Court, handed down by the justices on January 22, 1973. This decision voided laws banning or regulating abortion in all fifty states and made abortion a “free choice.”. . . Looking back from our present time, we can see this decision as part of a first step in inaugurating a Culture of Death in this country, one where the abortion of over one million unborn babies annually would soon be joined by assisted suicide, “partial birth” infanticide, and other cowardly modern answers to age-old human problems.
In the view of pro-lifers such as Carlson, abortion, assisted suicide (sometimes referred to as euthanasia), and capital punishment are all forms of killing and thus morally problematic. This view was recently expounded by Pope John Paul II in his March 25, 1995, encyclical letter, Evangelium Vitae, or “The Gospel of Life,” in which he warns of “an extremely dangerous crisis of the moral sense, which is becoming more and more incapable of distinguishing between good and evil, even when the fundamental right to life is at stake.”
“The direct and voluntary killing of an innocent human being is always gravely immoral,” states the pope. In “The Gospel of Life” he reiterates the Catholic Church’s adamant opposition to abortion as an “unspeakable crime,” to suicide as a “gravely evil choice,” and to euthanasia as “a disturbing ‘perversion’ of true mercy.” Furthermore, John Paul II argues that the death penalty is only justified when society has no other means of protecting itself from dangerous criminals, and that “today, . . . as a result of steady improvements in the organization of the penal system, such cases are very rare, if not practically non-existent.” Moreover, warns the pope, the growing acceptance of abortion, euthanasia, and the death penalty are part of an alarming trend in modern society: “We are facing an enormous and dramatic clash between good and evil, death and life, the ‘culture of death’ and the ‘culture of life.’”
Of course, “The Gospel of Life” was immediately criticized by pro-choice groups, right-to-die activists, and many death penalty supporters. In particular, many pro-choice groups do not view abortion as a “problem of death” at all, and so found the pope’s identification of abortion as murder preposterous. Trish Hooper, writing in the New York Times, states, “The value of life is never more fully confirmed than when a woman decides not to continue with a pregnancy that would result in yet another unwanted life.” She dismisses “The Gospel of Life” as out of touch with the lives of modern Catholics and Americans in general: “Many of them may find it more Christian to follow their consciences when it comes to abortion than to follow the commands of this pope.”
Similarly, although the pope and many pro-life organizations group abortion, assisted suicide, and the death penalty together as part of a culture of death, individuals who support these issues often do not see them that way at all. Pro-choice individuals are concerned with a woman’s right to control her own body; death penalty supporters are concerned with criminal justice; and supporters of as- sisted suicide are concerned with individual rights and the suffering endured by terminally ill patients. The debates surrounding each of these issues are complex, and often individuals who support one of these issues do not support all three.
Thus, while many pro-life groups found the pope’s condemnation of the “culture of death” apt, some religious leaders criticized “The Gospel of Life” for failing to consider the varying views held by supporters of abortion, assisted suicide, and the death penalty. Many worried that by classifying them all as part of a broad “culture of death,” the pope appeared inflexible and confrontational, and made public discourse about these issues more divisive. The editors of Commonweal magazine write that “judging modern democracy uniquely depraved is neither plausible nor persuasive.” Instead, they argue, society must go beyond the “life vs. death” mentality and begin a meaningful dialogue on these issues:
In rightly defending the “absolute” value of human life, the pope’s rhetoric and style do not fully acknowledge the complexity of the political situation. Individual rights and personal autonomy are the philosophical bedrock of Western society. Abortion and euthanasia are particularly difficult questions because they cut to the heart of the endlessly negotiated relationship between self-determination and social or moral duty.
The abortion debate, the right-to-die movement, and the morality of capital punishment have and will continue to be emotionally charged issues, precisely because they so often touch on questions of life and death. The Catholic Church’s teachings on these issues have been fundamental in shaping the modern debate over these “problems of death.” Problems of Death: Opposing Viewpoints offers a study of this debate in the following chapters: Is Suicide Immoral? Should Society Condone Physician-Assisted Suicide? Is Abortion Ethical? Is Capital Punishment Just? The essays that follow are intended to introduce the reader to the broad range of ethical questions surrounding death.
