Seamless Garment Argument
The most recent teaching on the death penalty is found in Pope John Paul IIs 1995 encyclical on Human Life Evangelium Vitae in which he develops a seamless garment argument in. It is espoused by Pennsylvania state Treasurer Robert Casey Jr the partys most promising 2006 challenger to an incumbent Republican.
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Just ask the 71 Catholic members of the House and Senate who regularly defend the right to choose.
Seamless garment argument. Put simply the Seamless Garment postulates that being pro-life involves not only fighting against abortion but also against euthanasia the death penalty war social injustice anti-immigrant sentiment and a host of other social issues that can also result in the death of human beings whether directly or indirectly. Publicly a consistent ethic fills a void in our public policy debate today. 1 What is the seamless garment argument.
While all of this is obvious it seems to me that this seamless garment argument is an attempt to blow smoke. Pastorally a consistent ethic of life is a contribution to the witness of the Churchs defense of the human person. The moral teaching of the Church has both pastoral and public significance.
This is about consistency. Critics of the seamless garment idea have suggested that it accomplished the opposite of its aim. Poorly formed Catholic politicians who are indifferent to abortion but need political cover while voting to support it.
That rather than creating a deeper respect for human life by expanding the categories in which we consider it it has diluted that respect by allowing Catholicsand Catholic politicians in particulara specious way to consider themselves pro-life on balance even if they dont oppose abortion or euthanasia. Seamless Garment teaching of course recognizes the distinction between taking innocent human life always gravely and intrinsically evil and the taking of life in the death penalty sometimes. You cant protect some life and not others.
Critics of Bernardins approach from cardinals to Catholic intellectuals and activists on the right feared that a seamless garment framework that situated abortion as part of other threats to life diluted the churchs primary role in defending the unborn. In that respect the seamless-garment argument has been a spectacular success. 1 What is theseamless garment argument.
Advocates of the seamless garment approach to moral issues and social justice promoted by the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin often use it to suggest a moral equivalency between issues like. The most popular connection made by Seamless Garment supporters is the abortion-nuclear war link. Catholic teaching bans abortion but allows capital punishment.
Its the claim that Catholic teaching on life is like a seamless garment so that if you accept one part of it you need to accept it all. The seamless garment was a term coined by a Catholic ethicist in 1971 to equate the intrinsic evil of abortion with capital punishment. Put simply the Seamless Garment postulates that being pro-life involves not only fighting against abortion but also against euthanasia the death penalty war social injustice anti-immigrant sentiment and a host of other social issues that can also result in the death of human beings whether directly or indirectly.
What I argued in my previous articleand what I continue to assert todayis that the key word in Seamless Garment is seamless just as the operative word in consistent ethic of life is consistent. This is different than a matter of prioritization. They allege that a person simply cannot be truly pro-life if he or she in any way shape or form supports a strong national defense.
This is sometimes referred to as having aconsistent ethic of life. Hence to call the consistent ethic of life philosophy the seamless garment theory is to suggest that the consistent ethic of life is identical with the teachings of Christ. Its the claim that Catholic teaching on life is like a seamless garment so that if you accept one part of it you need to accept it all.
The protection of life said Egan is a seamless garment. However supporters of the Seamless Shroud deliberately obscure the central points of the comparison. Democrats should hear out the seamless garment argument.
The seamless garment philosophy holds that issues such as abortion capital punishment militarism euthanasia social injustice and economic injustice all demand a consistent application of moral principles valuing the sanctity of human life. To illustrate what I mean let us suppose the issue was slavery and not abortion. Of course the metaphor is an allusion to the seamless garment of Christ.
It is an attempt to relativize and minimize the anti-abortion pro-life campaign by introducing other worthy causes.
Intellectual Dishonesty And The Seamless Garment Argument National Catholic Register
The Seamless Garment Writings On The Consistent Ethic Of Life Bernardin Joseph Cardinal Nairn Thomas A 9781570757648 Amazon Com Books
The Seamless Garment Is The Catholic Position Catholic Outlook
Seamless Garment Or Political Comforter
