Belgium’s new law is most distressing not only because of the lost lives of the innocent children, but also, as Richard Stith points out, marks a new low in our devaluing the intrinsic life of each individual person. As Archbishop Leonard, the primate of the Catholic Church in Belgium is quoted as warning in this National Catholic Register articke, “We are opening a door that nobody will be able to close” — if that door hasn’t already been opened long ago.
There are signs, though, that there is a new awakening to the dignity of life in Europe, esp. on the topic of abortion. There were protests in Belgium, as well as in Spain, where there will soon be a vote on the reversal the liberalizing of the abortion laws by the previous socialist government and where there was recently a million-person pro-life rally.