Yearning for a sense of shared humanity

In two hours of historic oral arguments Dec. 1 before the U.S. Supreme Court, lawyers well-trained in the art of proposition and declamation debated the legal underpinnings of the “right” to abortion.

Their arguments and the questions posed by the justices centered on a Mississippi law – currently held in abeyance – that would ban abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Currently, no state has the right to ban abortion before fetal “viability,” estimated to be 24 weeks of gestation.

Lurking in the background was an even loftier standard of protection for the unborn – doing away entirely with the high court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that made abortion legal through all nine months of pregnancy, a travesty of the natural law that over the last half-century has led to the deaths of more than 62 million babies in the U.S. alone.

My wife and I have four grandchildren. Our only grandson, who just turned 1 in October, is the youngest.

A few weeks before his first birthday, as I rested with him across my chest on the daybed at his home, the first thought that crossed my mind was the amazing softness of his skin. As his smooth, nearly hairless head brushed across my face, he smiled and giggled. It was another ongoing reminder of the miracle of life.

Feeling the tender, suppleness of his limbs, the gentle rise and fall of his torso, I thought, how could anyone ever harm a child?

And then, I remembered a lecture visit to New Orleans in 2013 by Jesuit Father Robert Spitzer, a brilliant philosopher and ethicist who has written “Ten Universal Principles: A Brief Philosophy on the Life Issues.”

Everyone has memorized “The Golden Rule”: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

But, Father Spitzer asked his audience, how many people have ever heard of “The Silver Rule”? Known in its Latin form as the “Principle of Nonmaleficence,” it can be summed up in just four words: “First, do no harm.”

In other words, don’t do a harm to others that you don’t want done to yourself.

Father Spitzer said 17th-century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes considered The Silver Rule so important he considered it the foundation of ethics. If we do not embrace The Silver Rule, Father Spitzer says, “life will become even more brutish, ugly and short.”

Notice, we are not talking about a religious belief or dogma. This is how moral people treat moral people.

“This is the minimum of civility on which society can rest,” Father Spitzer says.

A corollary of the Principle of Nonmaleficence is this: If there is a doubt as to whether or not an action will cause grave and unnecessary harm, we should avoid that action. Because if we act despite that doubt and the action causes grave and unnecessary harm, we have violated the principle and are unjust.

In its Roe decision, the U.S. Supreme Court made what Father Spitzer called “the most remarkable set of deductions.”

“They established a specious distinction between personhood and human being, then asked a bunch of people who were completely confused by the distinction – when personhood begins – and came to an astounding conclusion – ‘We don’t know’ – and then we sanctioned a grave and unnecessary violation of the principle of nonmaleficence,’” Father Spitzer said. “Are you kidding me?”

Father Spitzer said it’s the same logic the court used in its Dred Scott decision in which the enslaved were judged to be “subhuman.” The court said it was unsure whether Blacks were full human beings – but then went ahead anyway and declared them less than human.

The Roe court even made this astounding declaration: If the fetus actually were proven to be a person, “then the case (for abortion) would automatically fall apart.” The court subtly shifted the burden of proof to Texas to show that a fetus is a person.

“That’s not right,” Father Spitzer said. “The burden of proof should be on the Supreme Court to prove that it’s not a person. If you’re going to sanction the killing of a human being, at least you should have the burden of proof.”

Viability standard ‘doomed’
Camille Pauley, cofounder with Father Spitzer of an organization called Healing the Culture that advocates for pro-life issues, believes after hearing the Dec. 1 arguments, in which six justices called into question the current “viability” standard, that the Mississippi’s 15-week ban will be upheld.

“The ‘viability standard’ is doomed,” Pauley said. “I think the majority of the court recognizes that Roe vs. Wade is an archaic artifact of the past. They recognize the arbitrariness in that standard. I think there was a lot of skepticism about Roe, which is exactly where the court should be. So, I’m encouraged.”

Pauley said The Silver Rule needs to be shared with everyone wanting to promote protection for the life of the unborn: First, do no harm.

“What Justice Harry Blackmun acknowledged in his Roe decision in 1973 was, ‘We don’t know whether or not the unborn child is a human being,’” Pauley said. “If you look at the writing, it’s such a fake humility that, in my opinion, was grotesquely arrogant. (Blackmun wrote) ‘We don’t know whether or not this unborn child is a human being. When those trained in medicine and philosophy are unable to arrive at a consensus, the judiciary is not in a position to speculate as to the answer.’ “The court violated the most basic principle of ethics, which is ‘First, do no harm.’ An offspring of that principle is, ‘What do you do if you don’t know if this is a human being or not?’ Obviously, you don’t do the harm. We follow that principle in almost every other area of law and court decisionmaking – except abortion.”

Pauley said there are three possible landing spots for the court in its decision, expected to come down in early July.

“No. 1, the Mississippi law could be upheld, but the court will find a way not to overturn Roe vs. Wade or not to overturn it entirely,” Pauley said. “No. 2, the Mississippi law will be upheld, and Roe vs. Wade will be overturned. No. 3, which would be the best-case scenario, the Mississippi law will be upheld, Roe vs. Wade will be overturned and the Supreme Court will acknowledge in its ruling that the unborn child is a full human being who needs to be protected by law.

“I don’t know which of those will happen, but I am 100% convinced that the Mississippi law will be upheld, and that will be good news for unborn children and good news for the pro-life movement.”

Advancements in 4D imaging and genetics make it indisputable that the baby in utero is as uniquely human as the baby a grandfather clutches to his own beating chest.

What a joyful, internal dance that occurs when reason meets faith. Trust your head. Trust your heart. Trust the miracle of life.

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