Under the new health-care law, pro-lifers may have to accept inferior health plans, rather than wrongly pay into abortion providing ones.
Pillar: The Human Person
The Human Person
The first pillar of a decent society is respect for the human person, which recognizes that all individual human beings have dignity simply because of the kind of being they are: animals whose rational faculties allow them to know, love, reason, and communicate. It also recognizes that human beings are persons, members of the human family who flourish in a community that respects their fundamental rights and who long to discover transcendent truths about the nature of reality.
Learn more about the Human Person: get your free eBook today!
Post
Conservatives, Abortion, and Contraception
More on the red-state blue-state abortion debate: a response to Koppelman, Carbone, and Cahn
Post
Remembering the Pill
The fiftieth anniversary of oral contraceptives is a reminder of all the things the Pill lets us forget.
Post
Health Care and the Abandonment of Pro-Life Principle
In a first-time feature, the editors of Public Discourse respond to the editors of Commonweal.
Post
Pornography and the Muslim World
Promoting a sexually permissive pop-culture in the Muslim world gets the true foundations of ordered liberty wrong. In defining our ideals by rejecting our enemy’s, we go from one extreme to another, and miss the virtuous mean.
Post
Exporting Death to Kenya
America’s abortion laws may inspire a dangerous provision in Kenya’s new constitution.
Post
How Red States Reduce the Abortion Rate: A Response to Andrew Koppelman
Andrew Koppelman’s claim that red states and the religious right increase abortions doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.
Post
How Jihadist Education Breeds Violence
The nature of children’s education matters to jihadists. It should matter to us, too.
Post
Islam’s European Reformation?
The controversial Tariq Ramadan’s latest book promotes a “Western” version of Islam. Is he the “Muslim Martin Luther”?
Post
Muslim “Leaders” Adding Fuel to the Swiss-Minaret-Ban Fire
It’s hard to credibly demand religious liberty when one is in the minority if one refuses to grant it when one is the majority. The principle “do unto others as you would have done unto you” should be a guiding ideal for all sides in the Swiss minaret controversy.
Post
Bad Reason and the ‘Manhattan Declaration’
A good deal of online commentary about a recent ecumenical statement misunderstands the nature of human reason.
Post
How to Stop the Next Detroit Bomber
In response to the would-be Detroit bomber, Yemen wants more helicopters to counter terrorism. But there is no indication helicopters would have stopped him or that, over the long run, they will put an end to the activities of al-Qaeda enthusiasts. Counterterrorism efforts need to take hearts, minds, and wills seriously.
Post
Duty and Disability
Having spent 20 years wrongly diagnosed as in a persistent vegetative state, Rom Houben reminds us that disabled persons are capable of many more substantive opportunities for human fulfillment than we are initially inclined to believe. But is bodily life just as such worth preserving? Can care-givers rightly remove hydration and nutrition?
Post
Economic Liberalism and its Discontents
If we are to restore confidence in free markets, we need a robust explanation of their moral value.
Post
The Post-Nuclear Family
It is no simple matter to care for aging parents. But in the face of an uncertain future, concrete steps can be taken to make an unusual option more attractive.
Post
The Conscientious Engagement of Yves Simon
Yves Simon's fierce moral intelligence highlights the sad decay of our public deliberation, but his example also gives cause for hope.
Post
Philosophy and the Embryo
Pragmatic and moral considerations should not be allowed to distort science, nor should they distract philosophy from its pursuit of truth.
Post
Who Defines What Islam Is?
Many Muslims have been either silenced or ignored when it comes to their views of their own faith. As we grapple with the legacy of 9/11, we need to listen to these voices if we are to understand the religion they practice.
Post
Obama on the Value of Human Life: How About Some ‘Vigorous’ Debate?
President Obama has called for vigorous debate on the abortion question. For that to happen, though, his own position must be clarified. The picture that emerges is not a flattering one.
Post
Judge Sotomayor and Abortion on Demand: A Tutorial
Millions of Americans believe that states can prohibit abortion in the third trimester, yet current Supreme Court jurisprudence has manufactured a right to unfettered abortion right up to the time of the child’s birth. How did Americans become so confused on this issue and how did the Supreme Court end up where it has?
Post
The Embryo Troubles of Obama’s Top Doctor
Many are pointing to Obama’s pick of an Evangelical to head the National Institutes of Health as a sign of the president's willingness to reach out to those with differing viewpoints. But his pick holds conflicted views about the human embryo and will oversee a department that, under new rules, is outsourcing the destruction of human life.
Post
What Does it Mean to Respect Islam?: The Witness of Soraya M.
Healthy respect takes account of the diversity in Islam and focuses not on respecting an idea but on respecting the humanity of individuals. A new movie that opens in U.S. theaters today helps illustrate this precise point.
Post
Is the Abortion Debate Over?
The philosophical debate about abortion has reached a welcome level of clarity. The pro-life movement must capitalize on recent gains in public policy and opinion by equipping their grass-roots supporters with winsome arguments and effective strategies to continue to cultivate a culture of life.
Post
Obama’s New Beginning in Cairo: Now He Needs One in Washington
President Obama’s “New Beginning” speech in Cairo featured wise and strategically astute language regarding Muslims. Yet coverage of the event by the U.S. State Department office responsible for communication to foreign audiences undermined Obama’s message. Before more outreach to foreign audiences, the Obama White House needs to reach out to its own State Department.
Post
Obama and His Pro-Life Apologists
Three months into President Obama’s first term, one of his most prominent pro-life opponents, Robert P. George, engaged in a discussion with one of his most prominent pro-life supporters, Douglas W. Kmiec. The article below is adopted from George's remarks, which called for candid speech on Obama's abortion record.