The art of disagreeing:
Hehir, J Bryan
WORLD WATCH J. Bryan Hehir THE ACT OF DISAGREEING SEARCHING FOR COMMON GROUND It is sad but often true that tragedy is a catalyst to constructive action. That fact, demonstrated during the civil...
...The possibility of finding practical agreement in the midst of profound differences at the level of principle is an urgent necessity precisely because of the looming debate on euthanasia and assisted suicide...
...On these issues it is already clear that a moral division exists on the question of the ethics of terminal care...
...legal disagreement are useful, in fact the abortion debate has generated little in the way of common ground at either level...
...We should be able as a society to plot a different course, but nothing so far indicates we will do so...
...There is some agreement on the first in American society, but growing division on the second...
...The cardinal's statement condemned the shootings ("reprehensible acts of violence with absolutely no justification whatsoever...
...But the search for "common ground" in practice may offer the possibility of some limited successes even as we disagree vigorously on the higher principles and larger policy issues.arger policy issues...
...One moves from bioethics as a policy problem to social ethics...
...Three issues of abortion, poverty, and euthanasia exemplify the need...
...Needless to say, the method of both moral and legal argument is persuasion not physical coercion, much less physical violence...
...Those who vigorously disagree both morally and legally may still find meaningful engagement in providing medical, social, and material support to pregnant women...
...The third level of the question, practical expressions of human solidarity, offers the best hope for common ground...
...The theme is the search for "common ground" in the still highly conflicted abortion debate...
...In the abortion debate the dynamic of public debate has consistently violated Murray's rule: we have confronted each other at length and loudly with our differences, but spent precious little time exploring whether they rest on any foundation of agreement...
...Moreover, the character of the national debate about the poor indicates less and less "common ground" even as the numbers in poverty grow...
...These contending moral positions still allow for the possibility of some agreement at the ju-risprudential or policy level...
...Catholic teaching, however, highlights the social significance of all three issues...
...The reasons for distinguishing the three levels of engagement are both to clarify complicated public questions, and to make clear that the search for common ground at one level cannot mean dispensing with other dimensions of any of the three questions...
...Responding immediately, Cardinal Bernard Law made a statement which attracted broad support and has opened avenues of discussion which were previously securely blocked...
...The 1990s promise no respite on abortion, but the broader reality is that the fissures of public contention seem equally deep on other issues as well...
...Here the more limited question is what should be legitimated, allowed, or tolerated by the civil law...
...While these distinctions of moral vs...
...That disparity, in turn, erodes the possibility of common action at the level of public policy...
...and collaborative, immediate responses to human suffering may offer the best possibilities for cooperation among those divided by moral principles and public policies...
...While the abortion issue is sufficiently complex and contested to provide a case study in civil discourse, it may be useful to locate the call for "common ground" dialogue in a wider framework, illustrating its potential as a method of public argument in civil society...
...Moreover, both at the level of legislative referenda and now, in the state of Washington, through the courts, profoundly divisive policies are being pursued...
...While similar appeals for dialogue and the search for alternatives to abortion have been made previously by other individuals and organizations, the combination of the horror of the murders and the impact of Cardinal Law's engagement from a well-defined position opposing abortion gave his statement unique currency...
...In other words, the most difficult problem lies at the level of moral principle...
...and asked for a new effort of civil discourse, motivated by mutual respect...
...The three levels offer increasing possibilities for agreement...
...The cardinal has continued the public conversation, encouraging a broad-based public dialogue in search of alternatives to abortion...
...Even here, however, in the early stages of the moral-jurispru-dential conflicts, there are practical programs which may bring contentious parties together to find ways for individuals to control their lives and destinies in the last stages of life...
...Poverty elicits a different response...
...called for a moratorium on prayer vigils at clinics...
...Once again the needs of the poor and the social consequences of public paralysis in the face of poverty require that both the moral and policy debates be pursued, however difficult that may be...
...policy debates offer difficult but more flexible terrain...
...That fact, demonstrated during the civil rights struggle of the 1960s, when the bombing of churches would galvanize legal and legislative efforts to overcome segregation, found another expression in Boston after the murder of individuals working at abortion clinics...
...The firm negative answer of Catholic teaching stands in polar contradiction to the equally firm legitimation of at least some abortions by various prochoice individuals and organizations...
...The hospice movement exemplifies a practical way to get at what seems to underlie the drive for assisted suicide, a fear among many that they will be caught in a technological trap at the end of life...
...In spite of our obvious divisions at those two levels, however, direct immediate assistance to the poor-in shelters, feeding programs, and targeted efforts to assist children-may have the capacity to bring together those who answer moral and policy questions differently...
...The nature of the abortion issue, however, demands that inquiry, argument, and advocacy continue at both levels...
...The moral and legal arguments must be engaged, not for "sectarian" reasons of one religious perspective, but, as Leon Kass, Daniel Cal-lahan, and Edmund Pelligrino have argued, because of the social consequences of the assisted-suicide and euthanasia proposals...
...For each of these issues one could distinguish the moral argument, the ju-risprudential or policy arguments, and measures of practical help to those in need...
...On abortion, for example, the deepest division in American society lies at the level of moral principle, where the question is whether any directly intended abortion is morally acceptable or not...
...On the other hand, at least some pro-choice advocates seek to limit some abortions by law even while vigorously maintaining the legal principle of access to abortion...
...The welfare debate, but also the health-care debate of 1994, demonstrates how elusive "common ground" is on addressing poverty in the 1990s...
...John Courtney Murray often reminded audiences that it took a solid core of some agreement in order to debate our real disagreements...
...This threefold division of the issues may be more logical than life is on such contested questions...
...The moral question involves both the issues of personal responsibility for the poor and the scope of the state's responsibility in the face of human needs...
...It is now tragically clear that in the 1990s the intensity of end-of-life choices will mirror the history of the abortion debate...
...The need for "common ground" discourse cuts across a spectrum of questions...
...While national attention has been focused on the moratorium, much of the focus in Boston has been the appeal for conversation across the barricades of prolife and prochoice constituencies...
...The proposal offered here is that a similar structure of argument may facilitate the quest for common ground on three fronts...
...It is possible, even in the clear structure of Catholic moral teaching, to tolerate legally what one opposes morally...
Vol. 122 • March 1995 • No. 5
