Correspondence
CORRESPONDENCE Kudos for Kass Wilkes-Barre, Pa. To the Editors: Leon Kass's "Why Doctors Must Not Kill" [August 9] is a brilliantly reasoned and eloquent answer to the proponents of...
...monthly in advance for more than three times...
...There is also doubt about how great an evil abortion is, if an evil at all...
...And, if nothing can be changed, then won't reconciliation be a wondrous and healing experience--a sign to all of the risen presence of Jesus...
...To the Editors: In the thoughtful articles on abortion appearing in Commonweal over the past year and, more recently, on euthanasia, no one seems to bring up what I consider the radical basis for making such decisions: our ontological relationship to God vis-~-vis our desire to control all things, including life and death...
...DANIEL CALLAHAN Dialogue needed Gold Beach, Ore...
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...The authors insist that theirs is not a numbers game...
...EDWARD M, CORBETT The author r e p l i e s : I try not to "compartmentalize" my "musing" and thus see no inconsistency between my views on abortion and those on euthanasia...
...p. 558, Baloo, Rothco...
...My judgment is that it is a clear enough evil that it should not be socially legitimated, either morally or legally...
...In considering lifeanddeath concerns, is it logical to treat euthanasia and abortion as essentially distinct moral issues...
...1, 1924, to current issues available through University Microfilm, 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, M148106 and on Microfiche from Bell & Howell, Wooster, Ohio 44691...
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...This is not the way of Christ...
...See the advertisement on page 549for details...
...Because the authors are ministers and not writers, they are at their best giving specific practical suggestions and at their worst describing the big picture...
...537, 538, 541,549, Emil Antonucci...
...I leave it to the reader to determine whether the following propositions, all of which I hold, are inconsistent: 1. The (present) euthanasia debate is about whether to allow competent, undeniably human, persons the right to have a physician take their life if they request it...
...Judging by their explanations of what the church is and by their treatment of specific subjects, such as the Catholic hierarchy, weak preaching, guilt, divorce/remarriage/annulment, women's issues, changes since Vatican II, and sexual issues, I would describe the authors as theological centrists (on most issues), who manage to put Catholic teaching in a quite positive light...
...They are not a group of angry, ambitious, or proud people trying to overturn the church...
...It was predicted twenty years ago that, having taken a more permissive stance on abortion, I would soon change on euthanasia...
...532, 534, 556, Ross, Rothco...
...Callahan writes, for example: "Euthanasia is mistakenly understood as only a personal matter of self-determination, the control of our own bodies...
...The church today is in a period of transition...
...How can we, in good conscience, love them any less now...
...Free literature...
...Some admonishments are made so often they become belabored...
...some have found a home among Protestants...
...Copyright O 1991 Commonweal Foundation...
...And which of us has the wisdom to know at what point in our life spans (or the life span of anyone else) God deems us ready to move on to new life...
...its active mem558: Commonweal "I hate to leave, sir, but I've decided to start a cult of my own...
...It is painful to watch as they wait in vain for some sign from the church that they are loved and respected for who they are at this moment in their lives, and to see the tragic waste that comes about because the church ignores this source of loving good will and talent...
...JAMES J. DOYLE, C.S.C...
...Serials Data program No.: ISSN 00103330...
...72r six times...
...76r three times...
...Why is abortion not similarly "mistakenly understood," particularly when there is no question but that a second body is involved...
...Isn't that exactly the point made in the 1970s when opponents of abortion on demand raised the specter of euthanasia as a logical aftermath of the Roe v. Wade decision...
...We are indebted to both Dr...
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...and at additional offices...
...that is not now pertinent to the euthanasia debate since none of the disputants disagree that competent individuals requesting euthanasia are persons...
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...His dilemma is even clearer in his penultimate paragraph, which begins: "Our duty to relieve suffering cannot justify the introduction of new evils into society...
...It is mystifying that almost all members of the hierarchy refuse to dialogue with resigned priests...
...4. Unlike the status of the competent individual requesting euthanasia, there is considerable moral doubt whether the fetus (at least the early fetus) should be considered a person...
...It is also a social question because of the debated status of the fetus, which requires a communal judgment...
...I share those doubts, and believe they should be decisive in shaping the law of the land on the subject--even though in my own case, at the personal level, I would resolve the doubt in favor of the fetus...
...Over half of North Carolina retirees came from Florida--learn why...
...KAREN SUE SMITH CORRESPONDENCE (Continued from page 530) the concept of"personhood" at this point...
...Corbett confuses matters by bringing in (Continued on page 558) 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...
...foreign, $72...
...As for control of our own bodies and persons, who of us has had control over his or her own birth...
...530: Commonweal IN BRIEF CATHOLICS COMING HOME: A JOURNEY OF RECONCILIATION, A HANDBOOK FOR CHURCHES REACHING OUT TO INACTIVE CATHOLICS, by Carrie Kemp & Donald Pologruto, C.S.P., Harper San Francisco, $14.95, 224pp...
...R Chestnut Hill, MA 02167 (617) 552-8440 or 1-800-487-1167 27 September 1991:559...
...548,551, Valerry...
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...TOM MANNION Come to Historic New England Prepare for Ministry in a World Church Two-Week Courses: June 22-July 31, 1992 9 William J. Bausch - Parish Life: Theology and Practice (Evening Course, July 15-17 only) 9 Mary Boys -- Biblical Interpretation in Education and Ministry 9 Walter Brueggemann -- The Pentateuch: A Root Construal for Faith 9 John Coleman - Religion & Society: Discipleship and Citizenship 9 Maryanne Confoy - Adult Faith Education 9 Bernard Cooke - Christology 9 Brian Daley -- Christian Vision and the End of Time 9 James Dunning - Christian Rites of Initiation 9 Carole Goodwin - Youth Ministry (Evening Course) 9 Thomas Groome - Education of Christians: Past, Present & Future 9 J. Bryan Hehir - Social Ethics 9 Robert Imbeili - Foundations in Theology 9 Luke Johnson - Introduction to New Testament 9 Merle Jordan - Family Counseling 9 Margaret Mary Kelleher -- Liturgical Theology 9 Joseph Komonchak -- Church 9 Mary Jo Leddy - Reweaving Religious Life: Beyond the Liberal Model 9 Claire Lowery - Integrative Colloquium: Theology & Pastoral Practice 9 Sandra $chneiders -- Spirituality of John's Gospel (Evening Course) Also available: Academic Year Degree and Non-Degree Programs (M.A., M.Ed., C.A.E.S, Ph.D...
...it also has major social implications...
...Rather than the elusive concept of personhood, might Callahan not do better to use visibility as the real determinant of the right to live...
...they are not recruiters...
...Canada, $39...
...in its succinct treatment here, abortion mistakenly appears as a women's problem...
...What comes across most strongly is that the authors take reconciliation seriously...
...The sweeping generalizations about Catholicism before and after Vatican II, for example, are unreliable...
...More than fifteen million people in the United States belong to the category commonly known as "fallen away" or "lapsed" Catholics...
...Since 1984, through parish bulletin announcements and newspaper ads, Kemp and Pologruto have invited "seeking Catholics" to share their stories of alienation in group settings with others like themselves as a preliminary step toward healing...
...These Catholics, whom the authors call "seekers," may already have faith in God or a personal relationship with Jesus, yet it is not enough for them...
...Nurses Wanted You know the problems--become part of the solution...
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...I do not believe that they should have the right to such a request or that physicians should have a fight to respond to one...
...Why life is sacred Bay Head, N.J...
...Kass and Commonweal for this essay, which is deserving of wide circulation, particularly within the medical community...
...Is not this wish for total control an ongoing effect of Original Sin...
...1-800768-7358...
...To the Editors: I hope I have been a happily celibate priest long enough (retired 1989) to be permitted to offer some personal observations on the phenomenal loss to the active ministry of thousands of priests...
...Additional copies of Commonweal's special supplement on euthanasia are available...
...Resigned priests have sought for more than thirty years to engage in a simple, down-to-earth dialogue on the question of celibacy and the priesthood and, more especially, on their own position in the Body of Christ...
...Repeatedly, the authors state that the ministry to returning Catholics cannot be led by those who especially value obedience and absolutes or who devalue questioning as an important part of faith development...
...REV...
...2 We loved them when they were active priests...
...still others comprise the group for which Carrie Kemp and Donald Pologruto have formed a new ministry...
...To the Editors: Daniel Callahan's categorical rejection of euthanasia ["Aid-in-Dying: The Social Dimensions," August 9] makes curious reading in light of his acceptancealbeit reluctant--of legalized abortion...
...However, one thing all seekers have in common, though they may initially be unaware of it, is that the church to which they hope to return is not a tidy, calm nest...
...Contact: M. Ebner, Little Sisters of the Assumption Family Health Service, 426 East 119th Street, New York, NY 10035...
...But my convictions on that latter point are not strong enough to impose on others...
...Is the professional ethicist performing a service to society when he compartmentalizes his musings...
...5. Euthanasia is not necessarily the logical aftermath of the Roe v. Wade decision...
...Most of them would like reconciliation with the Catholic church, but have been too wounded, fearful, angry, or misinformed simply to return on their own...
...What seekers seek, of course, differs...
...Who knows what could come out of honest interchange...
...2. Euthanasia is a social issue because it involves both the person requesting it and the doctor who provides it...
...Registered nurses needed, work with inner-city families as part of team with other professionals...
...p. 543, Notre Dame magazine...
...p. 530, Punch, Rothco...
...To the Editors: Leon Kass's "Why Doctors Must Not Kill" [August 9] is a brilliantly reasoned and eloquent answer to the proponents of "aid-in-dying...
...They typically make the same distinctions I am making here...
...Full- or part-time...
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...I have not...
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...True enough, at the socio-political level, and I have no argument with Callahan's article...
...At the root of this evangelistic ministry is the belief that (1) the church is big enough for all Catholics (those on opposite poles of "issues" and all in between) and that (2) reconciliation is basic to the church's own identity...
...I have more certainty about the euthanasia issue...
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...If we truly grasped the ontological closeness of our souls to God, "we would confront," as Louis Dupr6 wrote in The Common Life, "God's uncreated presence to the soul" at the root of our being, and rights would be furthest from our minds...
...For f u r t h e r information regarding a l l programs: Institute of Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry Boston College, Dept...
...In his article [August 9], Daniel Callahan quotes the 1891 Supreme Court decision in Union Pacific v. Botsford: "No fight is more sacred, or is more carefully guarded, by the common law, than the fight of the individual to the possession and control of his own person...
...3. Abortion is no less a social issue, if only because it requires a woman who desires an abortion and a doctor willing to perform it...
...Second-class postage paid at New York, N.Y...
...Their departure has left a terrible void...
...Should not these ultimate and sacred decisions be left in the bands of the Creator...
...The sacredness of life lies not in itself but in its source...
...This book is the story of what the authors have discovered about seekers-their past experiences of the church, their questions, needs, and steps toward re-entry--and what parishes need to become and to do if they are to provide an authentic welcome to Catholics coming home...
...I also work with a number of colleagues in ethics, the majority of whom accept Roe v. Wade and reject euthanasia...
...But is there any way we can have "rights" in our relationship with the ground of our being, our Creator, Sustainer, and Last End...
...bers and its institutional life swim (or tread water) in a sea of questions...
...Microfilm from Vol...
...The concept of personhood seems to be the key to his distinction between the two, but since personhood is an arbitrary determination at the beginning of life, couldn't it be just as easily denied at the end to those who have lost the qualities we associate with the concept...
...I have had close and warm relationships with such men for many years...
...In developing this new ministry, the family of the prodigal son becomes the metaphor for the church...
...Many are so alienated or indifferent that they want no further association with the Catholic church...
...Rather, the process is "the beginning of a lifetime journey of faith and conversion for the seeker...
...When does the statute of limitations on such predictions run out...
...The book also begins somewhat vaguely, using data less helpful than what the authors themselves have found...
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...Nor should it be misrepresented as such...
...Dialogue can only bring light and clarity...
...But these are minor flaws that do not weaken the book's usefulness...
...ELEANOR MERRICK Callahan i n c o n s i s t e n t Commerce, Tex...
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Vol. 118 • September 1991 • No. 16
