Person or thing?

Recently, a bill was introduced in the General Assembly that would lead to an amendment in the Maryland State Constitution enshrining the “right” to procure an abortion. If signed into law and ratified by the voters, there would be and could be no limits on abortion.

It would be allowable through all three trimesters, up to the moment of birth. One of the goals of this legislation (and three other abortion bills recently introduced) is to make Maryland an abortion destination where the lives of unborn children could be taken almost at will and at any time.

It remains to be seen if Maryland will chart this grisly course. Affirmative votes by three-fifths of the legislature are needed to get the abortion amendment on the ballot in 2024. I sincerely hope and pray that this bill is defeated. But make no mistake. Even if a majority of Maryland voters were to pass an abortion amendment via referendum, that would never be the right thing to do.

Abortion up to the moment of birth raises the question: is the child in the womb a person or a thing? If it is indeed a person – which science, if not our own common sense, tells us it is – then we need to cherish that developing human life as well as the life of the mother.

Science is touted by some as the sole source of truth – except when science yields some inconvenient indicators. Very early on, the child developing in the mother’s womb exhibits unmistakable signs of humanity: a distinctive DNA, brainwaves, the ability to feel pain, human features. Science would lead us to conclude that the child in the womb is not a thing but a person, indeed a vulnerable person in need of our protection.

When many expectant mothers see an ultrasound image of their unborn child and hear the child’s beating heart, they choose to bring their baby to birth. We should encourage and help them, especially mothers in difficult circumstances. That is why parish initiatives such as Walking with Moms in Need are so important. That is why pro-life pregnancy centers deserve our support, and why government assistance for mothers and their children should be supported, including by legislators opposed to abortion.

In 1979, when Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, she spoke about loving the poor and disenfranchised – a work to which she devoted her life. But she included among the poor and disenfranchised the unborn, the unwanted child. She spoke of the millions whose lives were taken by abortion. And she added that abortion is “the greatest destroyer of peace.” If we can treat the unborn as a thing, not a person, we can treat anyone that way.

St. Teresa of Kolkata’s words once again rang true with the introduction of another bill in the General Assembly, a bill that would allow physician-assisted suicide. This bill would permit a physician, with almost no precautions, to prescribe lethal drugs to patients who request them, the same sort of drugs used to administer capital punishment. Such drugs could be prescribed without checking to see if the patient is suffering from depression or if the patient’s pain could be managed, or even if a patient could potentially recover.

As with abortion, physician-assisted suicide treats the person like a thing, not a person. When someone is deemed worn out or burdensome, this legislation would encourage us to dispose of him or her. Let us make no mistake. Once enacted, the “right” to assisted suicide will expand. As is the case in other countries, it could include children, those with mental illness and those who simply want to end their lives. What is touted today as a choice may someday become a duty. Person or thing?

Pope Francis recently cited abortion and physician-assisted suicide as part and parcel of today’s “throwaway culture.” “What is [deemed] useless is discarded. Old people are disposable material; they are a nuisance … the old, the terminally ill, and unwanted children, too; they are returned to the sender before they are born,” the Holy Father said.

Violence against the unborn and violence against the chronically and terminally ill are indeed manifestations of the culture of death – the cheapening of human life. Is it any wonder that we see carnage on our streets – more than 700 killed on the streets of Baltimore in the last two years? Were those 700 persons or things?

As Marylanders and as believers, let us move decisively to protect human life.

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