Correspondence
CORRESPONDENCE Deterrence & peace Park Forest, 111. To the Editors: The articles by Michael Gallagher and Edward Doherty ["Sidestepping the Challenge of Peace," and "A Classic Case of...
...The author replies To begin with, Dr...
...680, three times...
...To the Editors: David Carlin's comments on AIDS seem to suggest that only cowardly fear of gay rights activism, civil libertarians, and sex educators touting "safe sex" with condoms stand in the way of expanded and "semicompulsive" use of the AIDS blood test...
...Like many opponents of mandatory testing, Dr...
...BISHOP THOMAS J. GUMBLETON Auxilary Bishop/Detroit The moral menace Providence, R.I...
...We live in fear of those who can destroy our bodies, so to live rationally we must construct a deterrent to prevent this possibility...
...The range is quite comprehensive and the treatment, whether legal, medical, economic, or ethical, is documentary rather than interpretive...
...in Levine, a fatal skepticism seems to surrender the relevance of ethics to its nemesis, social relativism...
...Gallagher, and all of us who accept the teaching of the pastoral, and who also see so clearly that the conditions are not being met must take the next step...
...Yet was not the victory over evil his...
...What does it profit a man . . . ?" A challenge that once ended on a cross for someone who refused to play political games at the risk of fatal compromise to his moral teaching...
...We seem to be awash in a sea of principle-less and spineless empathy regarding the AIDS/ homosexuality issues, "groundswells" of support being regularly manufactured by such media manipulators as "National Liberal Radio" and "Some Things Considered...
...Although the council forcefully condemned all acts of total war, the view that deterrence may be "the most effective way by which peace of a sort can be maintained" was treated as if it were morally neutral...
...Letters of not "^ than 250 or 300 words naturally Jtovea better chance of being published affirms that, if pressed to the wall in war, the United States would rain down nuclear bombs on enemy cities...
...Serials Data program No.: ISSN 0010-3330...
...PHYLLIS L. TOWNLEY One must concur Cape Breton Island, Canada To the Editors: Michael Gallagher's "Sidesteppping the Challenge of Peace'' is probably the best single piece of writing that I have seen on this topic...
...10027...
...viding easily accessible disposable syringes and needles...
...He smiled...
...To the Editors: The articles by Michael Gallagher and Edward Doherty ["Sidestepping the Challenge of Peace," and "A Classic Case of Consequentialism," January 16] will, I hope, give a much needed nudge to the bishops' committee that has been assigned the task of reevaluating the moral feasibility of nuclear deterrence...
...God is not "giving us" AIDS to teach us a lesson in sexuality morality...
...That, after all, is what fte U.S...
...the usual estimate is 10 percent), its value would be felt only if such persons had safer sex (and condoms are not 100 percent safe), or no sexual intercourse...
...A few facts should be recalled...
...My major concern with Mr...
...July 7-21...
...24th Scripture Institute Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057, June 15-19,1987...
...I also hope that those among us...
...In all fairness to the pope, however, the conditional morality of deterrence did not spring full-grown from his brow on June 11, 1982...
...Rifkin is a mile off base when he says that only 10 percent of those who test positive for the AIBJ virus will eventually develop the disease Ten percent is the figure public health authorities were using some time baofc then they went up to about 35-40 percent today their rule of thumb figure for public consumption is 50 percent...
...or of the profound misgivings of Lisa O'Reilly whose fourteen-week premature baby, Joey, survived six neurosurgical procedures, at a cost of more than $200,000, with severe brain damage and no hope of anything resembling a normal life...
...I do agree that voluntary AIDS testing should be readily available in physicians' offices, public health clinics, and for marriage license applicants upon request...
...For brochure contact: Institute of Gerontology, College Misericordia, Dallas, PA 18612...
...It's like coming home...
...Or call (?17) 675-3862...
...It is the kind of logical discourse that characterizes the author's analysis of genetic intervention and medical exper» imentation with human beings, for example, but hardly the kind that exhausts the possibilities of philosophical analysis of biomedical matters...
...Call 1-800-633-2252...
...Thou shalt not kill...
...Or call (717) 675-3862...
...and by segregation of convicted prison inmates who test positive...
...Works of Merton Unpublished work of Thomas Merton appearing in Spring issue of the Newman Journal...
...JOHN LYON Unwanted effects Great Neck, N.Y...
...Ireland Storytelling theology...
...Rifkin could believe these procedures would have no impact at all...
...One quarter on site in the land of the Bible...
...by criminal sanctions for seropositjve persons who engage in sexual intercourse without first advising their partners of this condition...
...and Jennifer Corbett, O.S.F...
...Surely deterencc involves the intent to break this commandment, because if it does not, it is meaningless...
...COMMONWEAL, 15 Dutch St., NYC 10038...
...An opportunity to do this will be provided at the Nevada Test Site on May 3, 1987, the fourth anniversary of the pastoral letter...
...who fail at times to live up to their moral goals for sexual behavior do not compound the sin by failing to take whatever precautions are available against transmission of the AIDS virus...
...Registrations are being accepted now...
...A convivial learning pilgrimage through myth & legend...
...The evidence apparent throughout Hard Choices is that the Promethean challenge of technologically applied medical care will have to be met on higher ground...
...Second-class postage paid at New York, N.Y...
...by imprisonment for prostitutes who continue to ply their trade after testing posi254: Commonweal tive...
...I hope that the tragic AIDS pandemic which we are now entering does serve to re-emphasize and re-establish the sacred character of genital sexuality and the role of fidelity, honesty, and trust in human sexual relationships — whether heterosexual or homosexual, marital or non-marital...
...And it cannot be forgotten that a pluralistic society facing the pervasive ethical dilemmas of modern medical care may seek a'social consensus so intently as to become what Chesterton described as "too mentally modest to believe in the multiplication table...
...telling the truth and being truthful...
...In, ability to do the former does not release one from meeting the obligation of the latter...
...Then join us at the SIFAT Training Center for a nine-week intensive course studying appropriate technology and other ways to combat hunger, poverty, disease, violence and oppression...
...But this isn't so...
...That same practice is advisable for people who are not seropositive, so what is the advantage...
...Regarding present American nuclear policy, Germaine Grisez and Russell Shaw put it this way in the 1974 edition of their book, Beyond the New Morality: The Responsibilities of Freedom: It was the United States, after all, which dropped the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki justifying this action by the argument that it would "save lives" (American lives, of course, not Japanese lives, which presumably were judged to be of less value...
...Until now, my personal opposition was primarily instinctive, but these writers have pursued their theses with a logical precision that is irresistible...
...It is difficult to imagine any other issue of greater importance to the moral education of us all...
...Classified payable with order...
...Vocation certain...
...Testing should be accompanied by counseling for those who test positive...
...In his utter vulnerability he accepted the consequences, physical death...
...Therein lie the strength and the weakness of the book...
...The consequences of the answer profoundly affect every moral act and decision of our lives...
...Like a good reporter, Colen starts with cases of real people who agreed to be interviewed by him...
...The problem becomes disturbingly clear when, in declaring the abortion dJlemma, like all serious ethical dilemmas a conflict between two claims to fundamental rights, Levine indicates that the final ethical choice belongs to the people...
...Implicit in the criticism is Colen's belief that journalists can legitimately report on these issues, a belief that is justified by his present analysis of genetic screening, in vitro fertilization, neonatology, organ transplantation and the treatment of the terminally ill...
...Now accepting inquiries for 1988-1989...
...By their fruits you shall know them...
...Carlin speaks of the intellectual cowardice of those who oppose his "obvious public health measures...
...Illustrations: Cover I, pp...
...Rifkin objects to the cost suggesting this money could be better spent educating the public...
...Perhaps it might be faith, and reliance on God, who protects and delivers the peacemakers, and welcomes them into his kingdom, which is not of this world...
...And, wouldn't his proposal have the unwanted effect of giving a false sense of security to' those who are seronegative...
...Yet even they might express some sense of concern as the cultural capital we "antediluvians" conserve is squandered...
...Squandering capital Cleveland, Wis...
...So my figure of 50 percent was both conventional and conservative...
...But I am at a loss to understand how Dr...
...To the Editors: David R. Carlin, Jr., recommends as appropriate measures to combat AIDS, widespread blood tests, and tracing and notifying sexual partners of infected persons...
...The virus has no special predisposition to spread more easily by homosexual intercourse than heterosexual intercourse, as evidenced by the roughly equal sex ration of AIDS cases in Africa...
...His articles have appeared in the Irish Echo and the Newark Star Ledger...
...Faculty: Elizabeth Achtemeier, Paul Achtemeier, Joseph Agius, Peter Ellis, Wilfrid Harrington...
...p. 234, Bill Mitchell...
...To the Editors: Many thanks to Michael Gallagher and Edward Doherty for so clearly articulating my own doubts and reservations about the bishops' position on nuclear deterrence...
...Distinguished Faculty: Elizabeth Achtemeier, Ph.D...
...To me, it is cowardly to avoid the more difficult task: discouraging casual sex and prostitution, and making intravenous drug abuse safer...
...Regarding the menace of moral contagion stemming from our policy, at least one major allied leader thought it was already a fait accompli forty years ago...
...One moral theologian has already written very persuasively of nuclear deterrence as "the taproot" of evil in our violent and death-dealing society...
...Write: Director, Biblical Spirituality Program, Catholic Theological Union, 5401 S. Cornell Ave., Chicago, IL 60615...
...ARTHUR R1FKIN, M.D...
...For more information contact: Servants in Faith and Technology, Route 1, Box D-14, Lineville, AL 36266...
...And in the case of nuclear deterrence, the lives of others as well...
...Carlin's 24 April 1987: 253 message, however, is with its not so subtle "us" against "them" blaming of gays for the public health disaster which confronts the whole world...
...Storyfest Ministry, Box C, (202) 364-6143 Collect...
...Let us be honest, and recognize where we stand on this basic issue...
...If we are to be non-judgmental about extra-marital sexual intercourse in order to persuade its practitioners to use condoms, why not do the same to the much smaller number of persons who inject themselves intravenously, by pro...
...For brochure contact: •nstitute on Sacred Scripture, College Misericordia, Dallas, PA 18612...
...Dates: June 14 to August 14...
...p. 244, The Metropolitan Museum of Art...
...1989 from New York...
...14851-0250...
...Or do we really believe that there is no reality beyond this world...
...Possibility of remaining an additional year for the MTS degree...
...One detects legitimate skepticism in B.D...
...AIDS, like any other STD, is associated with promiscuity and/or occasional sexual acting out...
...Gay rights groups oppose mandatory testing not because, as you contend, "such measures will disproportionately affect gays, thus undermining the social legitimacy of homosexuality," but because gays legitimately fear losing their jobs and being ostracized by society...
...the fact of the matter is that for the past quarter century the United States has put the world on notice that if circumstances so require, it is prepared to do to other cities and their civilian populations even worse than it did to Hiroshima and Nagasaki...
...Faculty and topics: Richard J. Clifford, (Psalms), Paul J. Achtemeier, (Acts), Joseph A. Fitzmeyer (Pastoral Epistles...
...But at what price, and at what a cost to our eternal souls...
...William C Dowling, JAMESON, ALTHUSSER, MARX...
...Which is why the opening words of Howard Levine's Life Choices are so significant...
...24 April 1987: 255...
...Without condoning such sexual behavior, I think it is true that the use of condoms would significantly reduce disease transmission among the people involved...
...The doctor, on the grounds that the test was inconclusive because his patient was not in the high risk group for AIDS, said nothing...
...THOMAS EWENS Carlin & AIDS tests Irvington, N.Y...
...A typical case is a doctor withholding information from a patient who has tested positively for AIDS...
...I believe it will be eight years before she has these bombs...
...Idle threats are quickly discovered to be impotent, to the opponent's advantage...
...To the Editors: It is a very good thing that you continue to press the moral issue of nuclear deterrence and to publish articles like those of Edward Doherty and Michael Gallagher...
...They think more of erasing an historical building like the Kremlin...
...two quarters at the Catholic Theological Union...
...Carlin identifies as opposing the commonsense measures he proposes...
...Registrations are being accepted now...
...He suggests that the bishops should now issue an ultimatum of sorts to the government and clearly indicate that the current policy is definitely not morally acceptable, and that Catholics may not support this policy in any way...
...The only rational public policy response to AIDS is to spend vastly increased amounts of money on many fronts: education, counseling, testing, research, etc...
...19th Annual Institute on Sacred Scripture August 2-7, 1987...
...Paul Achtemeier, Ph.D...
...Aside from frightening the seropositive person (and where did he get his figure that half of such persons will become sick...
...But I see no need at present to test all hospital in-patients...
...It's good to be receiving Commonweal again...
...Also, optional pre-conference seminar (June 18-20) for those new to this ministry...
...Biblical Spirituality Program The Catholic Theological Union provides a year-long certificate program concentrating on the Bible directed by Carroll Stuhlmueller, C.P...
...This alleged symptom of a "schizophrenic" magisterium dates back at least, and most definitively, to the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, of Vatican II...
...Even if they slow down the spread of the virus only marginally, this will save hurt' dreds of thousands of lives over the years, for the virus spreads exponen" tially, and every time we convince one person not to pass it on, we save scores of others...
...Can this be justified...
...Copyright © 1987 Commonweal Foundation...
...The unspoken premise here is that there is a fixed amount of money for AIDS and that to raise spending in one area involves a corresponding reduction in another...
...Biblical Institute 22nd Biblical Institute, Trinity College, Burlington, VT 05401, June 21-26, 1987...
...With these cases before us, we can readily share Colen's conclusion that modern medical technology is indeed a mixed blessing...
...CLASSIFIED RATES: 750 a word, one time...
...It seems to me that Mr...
...Leslie Hoppe, O.F.M ; John Pilch, Ph.D...
...P237, Mac, Daily Mail, London...
...Until responsible legislation based upon medical fact is enacted to protect the civil rights of perhaps two million Americans carrying AIDS, gay rights groups will continue to oppose mandatory testing...
...AIDS happened to enter the U.S...
...It might mean wiping out three million people, but they would think nothing of that...
...Gays have experienced, and greatly fear, alienation from their families and communities...
...The result is that scientific medicine raises questions which philosophy alone can answer...
...Gallagher's choice of "a bleak day for the Gospel as a whole and for moral theology in particular" would seem to be off its mark by more than fifteen years...
...As a physician, I would counter that "not by the AIDS test and condoms combined" will humankind successfully address the challenge of AIDS...
...monthly in advance for more than three times...
...Book MYSTIFIED BY DECONSTRUCTION, Structuralism, "Neo-Marxism...
...To the Editors: Regarding Carlin's column, "Not by Condoms Alone" [March 13]: I heartily agree...
...JR., is assistant professor of English at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts...
...226, 231, 233, & 240, Paul Valery...
...Thus, Mr...
...CORRESPONDENCE (Continued from page 226) to provide guidance, but each of us is responsible to make decisions of conscience and act on them...
...We learn, for example, of the agony of Ellen and Jeff Fleischer and Justin, their Tay-Sachs child...
...Priesthood DESIRE PRIESTHOOD...
...But Levine, who is a philosopher and formerly served as Director of the National Science Foundation's Public Understanding of Science Programs, is willing to go farther, asserting that while the methods of scientific medicine may be ethically neutral, their outcomes are replete with ethical consequences for public policy, law, and the allocation of financial resources to health care...
...This is solid philosophical thinking as far as it goes...
...Write: Mary B. Greene, SSCE...
...For your copy send $3.50 check or money order to Catholic Campus Ministry, 110 Earl Hall, Columbia University, New York, N.Y...
...Testing for AIDS should be mandatory, but it cannot until the Reagan administration and Ed Meese protect the rights of those infected...
...Until the Armed Forces begin systematically removing Catholics from any situation where they might be called upon to take part in nuclear destruction one must indeed concur with the author's description of the bishops' statement: It is the moral equivalent of a blank check...
...p. 250, RiW Corbin.____, 226: Commonweal (Continued from page 226) at Princeton University, Colen criticized journalists for not being properly prepared to deal with the substance of biomedical ethical issues, resorting instead to sensational and superficial reporting...
...6.95 + 1.00 postage, Cornell University Press, 124 Roberts PI., Ithaca, N-Y...
...This may just be one "cultural antediluvian" congratulating another in the eyes of those parties whom Mr...
...Mandatory testing and contact tracing will certainly not stop the spread of AIDS...
...But if you speak with public health doctors privately, many of them will now say they fear it may be 100 percent — provided* of course, that the person doesn't die in the meantime from some other cause, e.g., a traffic accident or a heart attack...
...To the Editors: Thank you for publishing David Carlin's fine piece...
...This fact was related to historical accident and "unprotected" promiscuity, and not to homosexual behavior per se...
...Father Nigro Gonzaga University, Spokane 99258...
...640, six times...
...He has taught at Eton College in England and the Harvard School in Los Angeles...
...nuclear deterrence strateSy is all about: A strategy which Commonweal welcomes letters on subjects treated in its pages...
...The only really safe sex, during which condoms are not required, is with a partner who, you are absolutely certain, has been faithful to you for at least five years, says Surgeon General Koop...
...Pax Christi-USA will be sponsoring a national prayer-action from May 3-5...
...1, 1924, to current issues available through University Microfilm, 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ana Arbor, MI 48106 and on Microfiche from Bell & Howell, Wooster, Ohio 44691...
...Needless to say, all this should take place within a framework of law guaranteeing reasonable confidentiality and protecting carriers of the AIDS virus from discrimination in housing, employment and so forth...
...The teaching is there (Continued on page 252) Commonweal is indexed in Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, Catholic Periodical Index, Index of American Periodical Verse, Book Review Digest and Book Review Index...
...Aging Religious: Our Responsibility J"ne 2i_26 1987 The Tenth annua| Workshop for those working in retirement homes or programs for the aging in our religious communities...
...But beyond an understanding that something is seriously disturbing about modern medicine's seeming inability to accept death as human, there is little more that the journalist as such can declare...
...JOHN F. PALMERTON What God doesn't give Stillwater, Minn...
...There is no denying the powerful immediacy of this approach...
...I understand that such a statement would be supportive for many people but I also have come to appreciate the value of a church where all are respected as adult members...
...AIDS is a STD caused by a virus...
...WILLIAM F. WOLFF My own reservations New York, N.Y...
...But it does not go far enough...
...Colen because he seems to sense the objective limitations of the journalist's analysis...
...We must refuse to support those policies any longer and 252: Commonweal perhaps even actively resist them...
...These would be enormously expensive procedures, and I'm not sure if they would have much effect...
...Philosophy is relevant again," the author tells us, because "the success of biology and medicine has revitalized the long-dormant discipline of ethics...
...for even they may suspect that, apres nous, le deluge...
...It should be routinely offered to patients in sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinics, intravenous drug abuse treatment programs, and to others whose history of sexual behavior is "high risk...
...Microfilm from Vol...
...Write: Sister Miriam Ward...
...THOMAS }. ROSE, M.D...
...He seems to have forgotten that unlike, public policy, there are no ethics without absolutes...
...T. PATRICK HllXij director of Public Information for the Citizen's Committee on Biomedial Ethics, Inc...
...America knows that 52 percent of Russia's motor industry is in Moscow and could be wiped out by a single bomb...
...Maybe, but if the goal is persuading all persons to take appropriate precautions, not just those who are seropositive, would it not make more sense to use the funds to get the message across...
...His face brightened...
...We hope many of our members will come, but we also invite others to join us...
...It may be worth remarking that the basic argument against present American (and European and Russian) nuclear polidy is not new, nor is the menace of moral contagion Gallagher so poignantly portrays...
...Further, he sees that there Is not even a faint hope that our government intends to meet these conditions in the foreseeable future...
...What is the alternative, if disarmament means a Soviet attack...
...SIFAT Have you decided that words are not enough...
...I cite the following from Lord Moran's Churchill: Churchill said: "We ought not to wait until Russia is ready...
...Would such measures strengthen the resolve of those who are seropositive...
...DAVID R. CARLIN...
...populations via homosexual enclaves with a high rate of promiscuous sexual behavior in our large coastal cities in the late seventies...
...Levine thinks not and advances the cogent distinction between REVIEWERS ROBERT E. HOSMER...
...JORDAN BISHOP Respecting adults Detroit, Mictaf To the Editors: As with many others who have tried to apply the judgment of toe 1983 peace pastoral that deterrence is only morally acceptable in a strictly conditioned way, Michael Gallagher comes to the conclusion that the conditions in sisted upon by the bishops are clearly got being met...
...Gallagher is clearly right in his perception of the evil consequences for anyone who remains in sin, especially the horrendous evil of intending to incinerate or even vaporize untold millions of persons...
...Thanks to Gallagher and Doherty and others like them, we can begin to recognize that it is something more than disheartening that most American Catholic bishops continue to sidestep this issue...
Vol. 114 • April 1987 • No. 8
