Dear Friends,
Greetings from the LIFT!
This is to remind you that we gather for the LIFT Meeting, Tomorrow, Friday, 31
May 2013, at 7 pm at the Holy Spirit
College, Leuven.
Topic : Abortion: Ethical and Semantics Issues
Speaker : Josin George Kaithakulam
Moderator: Sain Chandy Vadakkan
Abstract:
Abortion – Ethical and Semantics Issues
The issue of abortion may
never end as it is a matter is life and death; pro-life and anti-life and right
to life and right over one’s body. It is not even a year that death of Savita
Halappanavar in Ireland called in the attention of the whole world.
Unfortunately, the vociferous media did not bring what the issue is at stake and
the Catholic moral theologians stood by both the official Church’s position and
of certain moral theologians. Now again, a few weeks back we are provoked to
look into this problem getting hold as a canker even in the so
called first world with the life sentence given to Kermit Barron
Gosnell, who aborted hundreds of zygotes and even killed born-alive kids in his
infamous abortion clinic in Philadelphia. It urgently calls for not to think of
his brutality and
barbarity, but to think of the ethical problems and the
semantic issues in dealing with abortion. Of course, even in moral theology
too, we see the hair-splitting technical and moral arguments, felt mostly as a
semantic play. Further we hear that the USA is seeking, together with some European nations, to create new
“rights” such as the right to abortion and euthanasia. The term
“reproductive rights” widely spoken now is only a semantic twist for abortion
and anti-life procedures. While the technology of communication has improved
dramatically, the content of communication appears to have deteriorated in
inverse proportion to the media used. As priests and nuns, we are faced with the concerns – therapeutic,
pastoral, social, and the necessity of upholding the catholic teaching.
Generally people depend on secular literature to positively know about such
issues. For example, John Grady in his book “Abortion – Yes or Not,” refuted all the
arguments for abortion, and possibly this
is one of the most widely read treatises on abortion in the world. And people
have interest in the Church teachings to criticise the Church’s pro-life stand.
It is incumbent on us, ‘set apart people’ for the Church, to have clarity on
the issues of abortion and defend the Church position reasonably.
So, we will have a brief presenation:
· Of Savitha Halappanavar’s death and the brutal practice of John Grady.
· The
ethical positions of certain theologians of the church.
· The
semantic issues in dealing with abortion issue.
· Social
and pastoral issues in India – for discussion.
Hoping to meet you all,
For the Core Committee,
LIFT (Leuven-Indian Forum of Thinkers)
