MY CHOICE FOR PRESIDENT

Some presumably vote according to party affiliations or even church affiliations. Others opt for personal relationships like family and friends in making decisions. And we can add a gamut of reasons of self-interest. While I don’t want to argue against facts, I believe that any of the reason or reasons mentioned don’t measure up to who we truly are, especially as people of faith. As people of faith, we live in hope. Hope goes beyond the facts and focuses on the ideals which are not yet here or if present are not yet fully actualized. Our faith in Jesus Christ gives us a well founded and certain hope. Because of our Faith we have Christian values that are different from those who don’t share our faith. Foremost among our values is the sanctity of human life. To recognize human life as a gift from God makes us humble and grateful. In practice, it means respect for life from the womb to the tomb, in every human being even if at times s/he is not deemed worthy to live because of horrendous crimes the person has committed. Hence, there are obviously situations that we struggle with our understanding and feelings in respecting this gift of life. Ordinarily, we talk of the right to life and we think or even feel that some people have forfeited that right. We may have reasons to think or feel that way, but it is not for any human being to destroy human life. Properly speaking, the right to life is God’s alone, but it becomes a human right once it is given as a gift to us. Hence to deny anyone the right to life is to arrogate to oneself God’s power, it is another way of playing God. That’s why the Catholic Church considers abortion, euthanasia, human cloning, human embryo experiments, and capital punishment as morally wrong. In the moral teachings of the Church, some actions are morally wrong because they are forbidden but some are morally wrong because they are intrinsically evil. Abortion is considered intrinsically evil because it is a direct and intentional destruction of human life.

MORE ON THE EVIL OF ABORTION

I have followed some of the responses of the candidates on the issue of abortion. Some of them use the word “potential” when referring to the life in the human embryo and define the human embryo as having a potential for human life instead of calling its life as human life. This is quite an interesting distinction between potential for human life and human life itself. In Thomistic philosophy, there is like a bridge between being and nothing which is called “potentia” in Latin and may be loosely translated as potential. In this usage of “potentia” , the mango seed is not a mango tree but has the potential of becoming a mango tree. However, the life in the mango seed is the same life that develops fully into a mango tree. It seems to me that by calling the life in the embryo as a potential for human life, there is an obvious attempt to minimize that life since it is not yet fully developed and hence can be disposed of for medical/scientific reasons. Does the life of a mango tree not start with the live mango seed? In the same way, if human life starts during conception, why is that life not called human in the human embryo? Since it is not yet fully developed, certainly it has the potential of becoming an adult, but it is human life, not just a potential to become a human life. Meanwhile, one cannot deny some of the dilemmas in people’s minds once there is a legislation to ban abortion or if the Supreme Court reverses its stance on the matter. A concerned parishioner remarked that if there is a law against abortion, we criminalize the act and many helpless mothers and medical practitioners could become criminals. It sounds cruel and insensitive. On the other hand, abortion is killing an innocent human life and just like any violation of the fifth commandment not to kill, we know that not every killing of a human being is a crime like during a just war, in acts of self-defense, in accidents not due to anyone’s negligence, etc. Moreover, there has to be other alternatives or options available, like adoption. I know of many beautiful couples who can be great parents if they are given an opportunity to have a child.

CONSIDER OTHER ISSUES