Flawed Logic

I found this while reading and found it very interesting.

Recently, a number of Catholic bishops have criticized Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden, a Catholic, for his position on abortion. Biden has said, "I'm prepared as a matter of faith, to accept that life begins at conception," but, he said, "for me to impose that judgment on others is inappropriate in a pluralistic society."

Archbishop Donald Wuerl disagreed. "When life begins is not a matter of faith, but a matter of science," he said. "Defense of innocent human life is not an imposition of personal religious conviction but an act of justice."

I especially love the quote from Wuerl. I've always thought the same thing, but he puts it so eloquently. It brings up the interesting point that the Pro-Life position, although it often coincides with religious faith, is not necessarily arrived at through question of faith.

In regard to a fetus, the first question is: "Is this entity a human being?" This question is a scientific question, and even the most basic understanding of science tells us that at conception a new being is formed in the likeness of it's parents. So I don't simply believe that life begins at conception because my religion indicates that I should (and while that would be sufficient for me, it would not be sufficient for those who did not share my faith), I also understand that this is the case as has been demonstrated by scientific observation.

So if science answers yes to the first question, a second question needs to be posed: "How are we to handle this life?" This is not a question of science, but of morality. Although this may seem a little more difficult since there is not a universal accepted standard of morality, that fact has not stopped our society from making universal decisions about similar situations. Murder, rape, theft and many other actions have been deemed crimes by our society on the basis of morality, not faith (even though faith in many cases would answer the same).

So to say that abortion is only an isue of faith, and that "to impose that judgment on others is inappropriate in a pluralistic society" is as logically absurd as to say the same of murder, rape, theft or any other number of crimes. The fact that faith has an opinion on the matter should not prevent us from discussing the issue in the shared arenas of science and common morality.