A consistent ethic of life (cross-posted)

[catecumen]

Does anyone have some good links to articles/essays to recommend about a "consistent ethic of life," a philosophy which is "pro-life" not only as to unborn life, but extends to us mere borners as well (opposition to capital punishment, etc.), whether it is explicitly based on religious faith or is stated on general ethical and moral principles? I know there's a lot of good writing out there on this, and given enough time I'll find it, but I'd like to know what other people would recommend as the best written and most coherently argued pieces.

Someone I know linked to a rather chilling and frightening article, George Tiller is Dead: For Whom Shall We Mourn? Sadly, this kind of attitude is too common, and yes, it scares me.

Comments

[sqbr]

Afaict that's the POV of many/most conservative christians in countries with a strong cultural taboo against the death penalty (such as Australia) *googles about* Aha! Catholics: http://www.americancatholic.org/news/deathpenalty/

[catecumen]

I keep seeing infuriating things like "this is what Convict X did to his victim (followed by graphic details) - the judges / lawyers / liberal politicians think he deserves to live and to be financially supported by the taxpayers. What do you think we should do to the judges / lawyers / liberal politicians who think the rights of Convict X are more important than the rights of his victim?"

[sqbr]

You had me confused there, to me "Convict"="one of the founders of my country" :D

But yes, I've seen those attitudes too.

[greenmama]

Try google searches also for "Bernadin" and "Seamless Garment" together.

This is an old article (from 1983; things have changed a lot since then)
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,949917,00.html
"Bernardin followed the lead of other U.S. prelates in extending the "life" agenda to questioning human genetic engineering, opposing mercy-killing and advocating Government aid to the needy. The same commitment to life, said the Cardinal, underlies the bishops' repeated criticism of Reagan Administration policy in Central America, for relying "predominantly on the threat offeree" rather than diplomacy. " (Note that here he ties "life" issues to not only capital punishment--oops, I guess capital punishment isn't in this quote, but it is in the original article in a previous passage--but care for the poor and foreign policy...)

And this is the full text of his famous speech wherein the "seamless garment" term was coined:
http://www.hnp.org/publications/hnpfocus/BConsistentEthic1983.pdf

Also see his Wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Bernadin#Seamless_garment

Also:
http://ncronline.org/node/2926

And his book, consisting of a whole bunch of lectures on the topic (which I have not read):
http://www.amazon.com/Seamless-Garment-Writings-Consistent-Ethic/dp/157075764X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243992186&sr=8-2


and an interesting letter:
http://www.consistent-life.org/library/letter-to-kissling.html

(Okay, so I think Bernardin was da bomb. And I met him several times, and I made tiramisu for him once, and he took seconds. :-)

[greenmama]

And yes, that artice is WAY creepy and gross.