Therefore, choose life
Callahan, Sidney
SIDNEY CALLAHAH OF SEVERAL MINDS THEREFORE, CHOOSE LIFE Widows, Planned Parenthood & September 11 As "difficult as their situation may be, she and other widows said they felt blessed to have...
...Was the suffering of these bereaved young women ameliorated by the offer of free abortions by Planned Parenthood of New York City, good for the week of September 18-22...
...Women Affirming Life was formed in 1990, and like Feminists for Life (www.feminstsforlife.org) attracts educated and concerned women who embrace a pro-woman/pro-life perspective...
...Crises, in this view, bring "tragic choices" that can require the ending of marginal lives...
...More than three hundred firefighters lost their lives...
...So many thousands gone," as the old slave spiritual laments...
...The mission of these groups is to testify in word and compassionate deed to the value of life, and to the truth that death-making strategies toward the unborn and the vulnerable destroy human flourishing...
...She alone has the nurturing maternal power to save this new life...
...Life is with people, and what have been called the "together goods" are primary...
...These groups contest the argument put forth by second-wave feminists of the 1960s that abortion serves women's well-being...
...More tears well up as we read the obituaries of those who perished...
...Those who were about to die used their cell phones to contact their families to speak words of love and encouragement...
...The messages received were heartbreaking...
...Who can ever forget the firemen and policemen rushing to the scene to rescue victims, despite the risk to their own lives...
...I recently explored some of the effects of the catastrophe in a lecture to the New York chapter of Women Affirming Life (www.affirm-life.com...
...Love and joy give us hope in the midst of suffering...
...The moral obligation to rescue one's neighbor in distress is deeply felt...
...Here is where joy can be found, not with autonomous individuals bent on control and other isolated satisfactions...
...Will the more positive responses of so many young widows witness to more life-affirming options...
...A multitude of persons helped one another to safety...
...As the country came to grips with the unfolding horror of the September 11 disaster, other pro-life values and principles were manifested...
...Every day since the disaster, the New York Times has run brief vignettes of the people whose lives were so cruelly taken...
...And how strong family bonds turn out to be...
...An unplanned, unexpected crisis can evoke life-risking moral responses...
...The great outpouring of aid from all over the city, country, and world has been extraordinary...
...When you choose life, you choose the bonds of face-to-face encounters with others...
...The duty to rescue and offer life-giving care to fellow members of the human family is the founding principle of the pro-life movement...
...Pregnancy and laboring in childbirth in the creation of new life show us that travail is not the final word...
...Since no one can survive alone, mutual aid and assistance are primary moral obligations that come with being human...
...Two men carried a woman in a wheelchair down fifty floors, and another greathearted man refused to leave his handicapped friend who was confined to a wheelchair...
...SIDNEY CALLAHAH OF SEVERAL MINDS THEREFORE, CHOOSE LIFE Widows, Planned Parenthood & September 11 As "difficult as their situation may be, she and other widows said they felt blessed to have their babies, now more than ever," reports a New York Times story, "Waiting for Babies Who Will Never Know Their Fathers" (December 5...
...We do not choose our parents, neighbors, or fellow inhabitants of earth's ecosystem, but we have moral obligations to them all, proportionate to our resources and abilities...
...People would look at me and burst into tears," says one young mother who has now delivered her baby...
...There is a recognition that individuals are morally obligated to help those in need, whether we have previously contracted to do so or not...
...This has been an event where males as providers, rescuers, and friends have demonstrated valor...
...Ironically, while suffering is beyond our control, so is the coming of joy...
...The hidden goodness of so many ordinary men and women comes to light...
...Many other valiant acts of altruism were performed...
...Acts of altruism reveal the positive potential of human nature...
...This jarring response can be described as offensive, but it sincerely expresses the conviction that the best way to deal with suffering is to eliminate sufferers...
...Surely, the pregnant wives of the men killed in the terrorist attacks of September 11 are among its most poignant victims...
...Love is stronger than death.er than death...
...For an unborn life, aid and rescue can only be performed by the pregnant woman...
...The human species is social and can only function as an interdependent community...
...She has a moral responsibility to her unborn offspring by virtue of her capacity and her familial relationship...
...These goods can only be experienced through mutual giving, receiving, and sharing with others...
...How many dedicated family men are described who loved their wives and children...
...Yes, I think that the pro-life movement is going to be easier to explain to others after this recent carnage visited on the innocent...
...The ubiquity of cell phones made this the first disaster in history that the words of doomed victims could be heard directly...
...The disaster helped prove the pro-life contention that nothing is more vital and basic to human beings than loving and being loved by one's kith and kin...
...Cutting off so much potential life can be seen only as abhorrent...
...On the street, other relief was proffered, from cups of cold water to medical assistance...
Vol. 129 • January 2002 • No. 1
