Paul Stark has brilliantly woven in a new analogy (pizza making) to make clear the fundamental distinction between the construction of things and the development of life. (The German Constitutional Court in 1975 and 1993 supported this distinction. That support can be found via one of the articles linked in Stark’s piece.) Unborn children aren’t […]
Here is a good story by Dave Andrusko on laws banning Down syndrome abortions. Andrusko highlights the changing legal landscape and also mentions the importance of Justice Thomas’s opinion in the Box case in which Thomas empathized that such bans “promote a State’s compelling interest in preventing abortion from becoming a tool of modern-day eugenics.”
The US Supreme Court today agreed to decide Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. For background on Dobbs, see this link. The Court limited its consideration to the first question presented by Mississippi’s cert petition: “Whether all pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortions are unconstitutional.” The cert petition was filed almost a year ago and there […]
Here is a link to an excellent article in Public Discourse. In the article, Phillip Wozniak and Ashley Fernandes discuss the important ethical issues surrounding the development of artificial wombs. The development of this technology has the potential to reshape the date about abortion rights. As Wozniak and Fernandes note, “if stopping gestation no longer […]
Here is a link to the Sixth Circuit’s decision upholding Ohio’s law that “prohibits a doctor from performing an abortion if that doctor knows that the woman’s reason for having the abortion is that she does not want a child with Down syndrome.” The court explained that the law does not prohibit a woman from […]
Here is a link to another essay by John Finnis on constitutional personhood. In this essay, Finnis responds to an essay by Ed Whelan.The most recent essay by Finnis (dated April 9, 2021) contains links to the relevant essays in this important dialogue.
Here is blog post by Alex Schadenberg on a recent article by Peter Singer on euthanasia and mental illness. Here is the concluding passage from Schadenberg’s post– “Euthanasia promoters, such as Singer ignore the reality that there is no proof that certain psychiatric conditions are untreatable and secondly, they ignore the fact that a symptom […]
Here is a link to an interesting dialogue recently published in First Things. Richard Stith and Melissa Moschella discuss moral issues relating to the COVID vaccines.
Here is a link to a LifeNews story on the Court’s decision to grant review in Cameron v. EMW Women’s Surgical Center. This case involves a Kentucky statute banning dismemberment abortions. The State of Kentucky initially defended the constitutionality of the law but abandoned its defense after a federal court of appeals invalidated the law. […]
That is the title of this recent essay by John Finnis in the April 2021 issue of First Things. Here is his concluding paragraph in support of constitutional personhood and the unconstitutionality of laws permitting abortion: “A break in the nearly half-century silence on the Court about all these matters would enhance respect for law, […]