A MORE HUMAN SOCIETY In a recent homily, Bishop Robert E. Barron rightly identified two paramount values in our secular culture: being “inclusive” and being “nonjudgmental.” The two seem closely related. If you want to embrace everyone in society, you avoid making moral judgments that banish some people to the margins. So all are welcome, […]
Richard Doerflinger: Planned Parenthood’s abortion fixation
A MORE HUMAN SOCIETY Cecile Richards, who plans to retire this year as president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, has authored a self-congratulatory memoir called “Make Trouble.” During her decade-long leadership, trouble is certainly something the organization has created. While it serves fewer clients than in 2005, its share of the nation’s abortions […]
Richard Doerflinger: On freezing embryos and consciences
A MORE HUMAN SOCIETY Days apart, clinics offering in vitro fertilization in Cleveland and San Francisco had malfunctions in their storage tanks, endangering thousands of frozen eggs and embryos. Women’s Health magazine called it a “fertility clinic nightmare” that may deprive hundreds of women of their chance for a child. We can all sympathize with […]
Richard Doerflinger: Three cheers for Lucas
A MORE HUMAN SOCIETY In a week dominated by the Winter Olympics and news of partisan combat (of course) in Washington, D.C., I am transfixed by the contagious smile of one little boy named Lucas Warren. Lucas has been chosen as the “Gerber spokesbaby” for 2018, so his joyful face will be used to promote […]
Richard Doerflinger: Assisted suicide: It’s about all of us
A MORE HUMAN SOCIETY Even after working on an issue for decades, you can come across one thing that shifts your perception of what it’s about. That happened to me recently on the issue of physician-assisted suicide, thanks to an intrepid Swedish investigator named Fabian Stahle. Stahle saw support growing in his country for a […]
Richard Doerflinger: ‘It’s no use reasoning with you!’
A MORE HUMAN SOCIETY Have you had arguments in which the other person would not concede your point, no matter how many compelling facts and reasons you brought to bear? That is most common in partisan politics, where mutual distrust and character assassination seem to have replaced rational debate. But it happens on moral issues […]
Richard Doerflinger: What is sex for?
A MORE HUMAN SOCIETY It began with reports that Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, over many years, used his power over aspiring actresses’ careers to sexually harass and exploit them. The allegations soon extended to other prominent men in the entertainment industry, then to candidates and elected officials of both major parties. Now each day seems […]
Richard Doerflinger: Shall we manufacture our children?
A MORE HUMAN SOCIETY “In the year 6565,/ Ain’t gonna need no husband, won’t need no wife,/ You’ll pick your son, pick your daughter too/ From the bottom of a long glass tube.” When “In the Year 2525” became a hit song in 1969, author Richard Lee Evans couldn’t have known his prediction about the […]
Richard Doerflinger: A population implosion?
A MORE HUMAN SOCIETY Remember when everybody worried about a “population explosion” filling the world with too many people? In the 1970s, this fear drove campaigns to legalize abortion and pour billions of dollars into birth control programs. Now experts warn about the opposite. While birth rates remain relatively high in developing nations, they are […]
Richard Doerflinger: Making suicide routine
A MORE HUMAN SOCIETY You would not know it from the national secular news, but a lot is happening on the contentious issue of physician-assisted suicide. One remarkable fact is that no state has passed a law allowing the practice this year, although laws allowing it went into effect in California and Colorado last year. […]
