Anti-Euthanasia and, by the way, Catholic
The Australian, Tuesday October 29, 1996, Pg 12.
IN his division of Catholics who do and Catholics who don't follow the Church's teaching in areas of public policy, Professor Peter Singer (Letters, 23/10) presumes there is a category of Catholic which blindly accepts the Church's teachings and applies them indiscriminately.
He leaves no room for the possibility that these people are intellectually convinced of the justice of their cause and that this happens to coincide with the teaching of the Catholic Church. I know a number of feminists opposed to contraception and invitro fertilisation for good feminist reasons to do with the objectification of women’s bodies who would be horrified to be labelled Catholics. Professor Singer might also find that what attracts Catholics to the Church is not its dogmatism but the offer of an ethical system which respects and encourages an authentic flourishing of the human person; a system in which the human person is not an expendable commodity but has ultimate value. Many have seen the utilitarian utopia which gives us the autonomy to choose abortion, infanticide, and now euthanasia, and rejected it. The Catholic alternative is an ethic based on love - not sentimental mush, but love as an act of the will. A tough love which calls for sacrifice in its service to life, particularly the poor, the sick, the disabled. This is the basis of what the Pope calls the civilisation of love.
CLARA STAFFA GEOGHEGAN, Cardiff, NSW