Consistently Opposing Killing : From Abortion to Assisted Suicide, the Death Penalty, and War

This work explains an increasingly popular view dubbed the Consistent Life Ethic, which holds that all life deserves reverence, so all social support for actions that destroy life should be withdrawn. The call is for opposition to abortion, capital punishment, euthanasia and other forms of killing to be consistent. Supporters of this view, shared widely in these pages, include figures from the Dalai Lama and Nobel Peace Prize winner Malread Corrifon Maguire to actor Martin Sheen and Village Voice columnist Nat Hentoff. It is at once an ethical, religious and political ideology, explored here in its application to actions from treatment of unborn humans to infants, the disabled, the poverty-stricken, war combatants and animals. Contents 3 Introduction: The Power of Being Consistent 5 CONNECTED VIOLENCE 13 1 Word Games Take Lives 15 2 The Left Has Betrayed the Sanctity of Life: Consistency Demands Concern for the Unborn 23 3 The Indivisibility of Life and the Slippery Slope 29 4 Israel/Palestine and Abortion 37 5 Understanding How Killing Traumatizes the Killer 43 6 Abortion and the Feminization of Poverty 51 7 The Direct Killing of Racism and Poverty 59 8 When Bigotry Turns Disabilities Deadly 65 9 Right to Life of Humans and Animals 71 10 Does the Seamless Garment Fit? American Public Opinion 77 11 Perceptions of Connections 91 CONNECTED SOLUTIONS 107 12 Activists Reminisce: An Oral History of Pro-lifers for Survival 109 13 Activism Throughout the Centuries 121 14 Changing Hearts and Minds 137 15 The Law's Role in the Consistent Life Ethic 151 16 Pro-life Politics: From Counter-Movement to Transforming Movement 163 17 Connecting the Dots—Nonviolently 177 18 People Power and Regime Change: How Nonviolence Spreads Democracy 183 19 Confict Transformation: Dissolving "Battle Lines" 191 About the Editors and Contributors 199 Index 201