The Wake

The issues surrounding abortion rights highlight a more intrinsic problem with our society as a whole, according to the fourth annual Faith and Bioethics Lecture held on January 27 at the Moos Tower. The lecture, given by Dr. Robert Spitzer, president of the catholic Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA, was part of the MacLaurin lecture series whose goal is “dedicated to bringing God into the marketplace of ideas.”

In his lecture, entitled “Toward a Philosophy of the Pro-Life Movement: Personhood, Rights and Purpose in Life,””, Spitzer said that the “violation of the silver rule,” which is “do not do harm to others that you wouldn’t have done to you,” was a symbol of the case for abortion rights. He added, “Why wouldn’t you consider that every human being is deserving of human nature?”

The government is a key player in the debate over abortion rights, according to Spitzer. “When the people [of the government] try to decide the definition of personhood, they get to decide who deserves to live and who deserves to die,” he said. However, Spitzer added that the “intrinsic right” of human life is a power that “no government can take away.”

Spitzer also brought human rights into the discussion by calling the similarities between the slavery issue and the pro-life issue “uncanny” as well as using quotes and ideas from Bartolomé de las Casas, a Dominican priest who, according to Spitzer, fought for human rights in Central America in the 1500s. “If one human being is to be considered sub-human, than we [as a society] have committed an atrocity,” Spitzer said, using quotes from Las Casas. He added that, in today’s pro-choice climate, “We are right back at the mid 1500s—right back.”

The audience, mostly middle-aged adults, included University of Minnesota undergrad Matt Kaul, a member of Mars Hill, a student group that “is dedicated to thinking about issues of faith and reason.” Kaul was very pleased with the lecture.

“Dr. Spitzer is a brilliant speaker and a bright philosopher,” Kaul said, adding that the lecture also “offered a basis for a conversation to take place, to bring in base issues of human rights.”

Kaul also said that, near the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, there was a general need on campus for more lectures like Spitzer’s, “because the atmosphere tends to be more liberal and pro-choice.”

Towards the end of the lecture, Spitzer gave advice on how to get his message of the “egregious culpability to the silver rule” in today’s society across to other people with “alternative views.”

“You must use love, goodness, and kindness to optimally define human nature,” he said, adding, “I think it’s important to show passion about this, but you must be utterly respective of those with alternative views.”