Let's Respect Human Life

Let's Respect Human Life

By Marta

According to Catholic World News, on March 8, 2005, renown scientists and ethicist gathered in Rome for the "Global State of Stem Cells and Cloning" conference, broke into applause when it was announced that the UN General Assembly passed a declaration banning human cloning by almost a three-to-one margin (84 for; 34 against; 37 abstentions). "In a non-binding yet politically important resolution, 84 nations voted for a comprehensive ban on human cloning as a violation of human dignity."

Why is human cloning so abhorrent? Because it treats human life like a thing, something you can trade and experiment with. It lacks the human respect and dignity that we owe to every human life. Human life is God's domain.

In the Western civilization, Christian anthropology is the historical foundation of human rights. Human dignity given to us by God from the moment of conception entails that we are free and responsible for our own acts, that all human beings are equal, that we are not animals but persons. God loves each one of us so we do not have right to kill. Our rights end when our neighbors rights begin. We can be free to act when we know the rules. Those rules are part of what secularly it is called the Golden Rule, in Christianity we know they are the Ten Commandments.

To have human rights, you have to be alive. A human life is to be conceived and nurtured within the structure of a family. Human life is not to be experimented with like Hitler did; or traded like in the African slave trade; or disposed of like they do in the abortion clinics, where a fetus is thrown away like trash. A human life is to be treasured and respected.

There is no excuse for manipulating life. Life is sacred and given to us by God. He gives it, only He can take it away.

The abortion mentality and the cloning mentality poison the common good. That good that is shared by all in a free society, where the individual is respected as a special creation of God.

When we are free, we can grow spiritually, emotionally and prosper materially. Like a butterfly, when we press its wings we damage it and it can no longer fly, so with an individual when deprived of his basic human rights, he is bound by fear and unable to act on its own. It is like a ball and chain is placed around their leg and it unable them to move. When a human beings is free, he can fly like a butterfly and others then can see the beauty of "their colorful wings in flight."

We need to protect human lives. We need to protect human freedom so in this earthly life, others who will come after us may be able to enjoy stability and joy in a society based on Christian human rights.

Life is a gift from God. What we do with life is our gift to God. Let us fight to protect human life and dignity at all levels in our society and every where.

Written on March 9, 2005