A moral sentiment
A MORAL SENTIMENT forts to prevent a similar measure from becoming law in Oregon, mounting a convincing case is not easy, or necessarily straightforward. The moral case, particularly if it...
...Well, no...
...We must focus on the social issues...
...Wolfensohn summed up (New York Times, October 7): "We must address the issues of long-term equitable growth on which prosperity and human progress depend...
...This two-pronged strategy is important because in the first instance it may help defeat a bad law that would have the most serious consequences for individuals, families, and doctors...
...What might be termed a nation-sized pilot project conducted in Holland demonstrates that when physician-assisted suicide is permitted and becomes the social custom of the land, it will be gradually extended to persons who are not terminally ill, who are not competent, or who are not even conscious...
...In the second instance it may help make people more astute and thoughtful about death and dying, about what kind of "choice" the voters of Michigan will be making...
...His argument is perhaps a trifle utilitarian, but to us his advice sounds almost as good as an encyclical...
...We must focus on the institutional and structural changes needed for recovery and sustainable development...
...At the gathering of world economic leaders in Washington on October 6, Mr...
...The moral case, particularly if it is advanced by religious groups, especially the Catholic church, can bring forth charges of violating the separation of church and state, and can unleash ugly anti-Catholic prejudices...
...The Michigan Catholic Conference is part of the coalition...
...Because if we do not have the capacity to deal with social emergencies, if we do not have longer-term plans for solid institutions, if we do not have greater equity and social justice, there will be no political stability, and without political stability no amount of money put together in financial packages will give us financial stability...
...In Michigan, the coalition, "Citizens for Compassionate Care," has focused on such arguments and drawn attention to problematic aspects of the proposed law...
...Wolfensohn argued that the approach of institutions like the International Monetary Fund must be adjusted so that "mathematics will not dominate humanity...
...And fortunately no one has asked us...
...We must do all this...
...After all, Adam Smith, the man who wrote The Wealth of Nations (1776), first made his reputation with A Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759)--and they were not mere "sentiments...
...James Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank...
...But there are realistic, pragmatic, practical arguments that can help to unmask the notion that each of us is and ought to be the ulthnate master or mistress of his or her own fate--and the parallel idea that legalizing assisted suicide is a way of expressing our mastery at end time...
...In fact, some analysts believe the Oregon vote for physicianassisted suicide may have been tipped in its favor simply because of Catholic opposition to it...
...After reviewing a year of global upheavals, Mr...
...At the same time, Michigan's Catholic bishops have developed their own parishbased program to remind Catholics of the basic theological and moral reasons for rejecting physician-assisted suicide...
...Commonweal 6 October23,1998...
...Amazingly such a sentiment has been expressed by Mr...
...Opponents of referenda such as Michigan's Proposition B need to organize coalitions with sufficient resources to educate the public, and they need to offer political arguments in keeping with their own moral position...
...When the arguments favoring assisted suicide are pursued to their logical conclusion, they lead inexorably to expansion of the categories of people who will be allowed to take their own lives or have their lives taken from them---quite possibly with the encouragement of others whose interests may be in conflict with the dying person's...
...However pragmatic such arguments may be, they have substance...
...If Allen Greenspan, Robert Rubin, and their esteemed international colleagues can't agree on remedies for the global economic crisis, can the editors of a magazine with an annual deficit (which, though well below Japan's, is nonetheless worrisome) possibly come up with any...
...But if the "technical" answers to the "contagion" now threatening the "globalized" economy are not obvious or ready-to-hand among those who trade in such goods, perhaps a turn to the moral dimension would help...
Vol. 125 • October 1998 • No. 18
