Respect Life

Respect Life
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October is "Respect Life Month" and I want to talk a little about that.

One of the things that the Catholic Church teaches is the right to life from the moment of conception to natural death. Most people associate this with our stand against abortion and in-vitro fertilization, but this also includes capital punishment and critically ill and aged.

Every life begins at the moment the sperm meets the egg. That is the moment a miracle happens when a soul enters and the egg begins to split again and again. DNA guides the growth process and a little heart begins to beat in as little as 18 days and a face and hands and feet form, and this process continues until birth.

Scientists, liberal politicians and atheists do not want to recognize this process as anything but scientific. They will not call it a "baby" but try to de-humanize it as a "fetus" or some other benign word, in order to make their consciences clear when they commit murder for the convenience of someone other than the child.

The fact is, ALL forms of abortion are murder when done to a living child, no matter how small the child. This also includes fertilized embryo's that are destroyed when they are no longer needed, tiny little souls in limbo until implanted in a womb, or tossed out like yesterdays garbage.

All women who go through an abortion, continue to suffer in one form or another, whether they outwardly show it on not. So many women who have had an abortion say they still feel guilt, loss, depression, anxiety or sometimes worse, suicidal thoughts afterward.

The Catholic Church provides help to women that are in crisis, and have provided counseling and when necessary, adoptive services for un-wanted infants. There is always an alternative to killing a child.

Then there are the forgotten ones, the people on death row, who have years to contemplate their actions that put them there. These are people. We were not given the right to kill them. Punish them, lock them up so they cannot harm the public or themselves, but love them, pray for them, visit them, as Jesus asked us to do. Someone recently calculated the cost of capital punishment over life in prison and found that it actually costs the public more for all the pre-trial, automatic appeals, habeas corpus, and housing, far out weighs the cost of life in prison. **See California Study on the cost of Capital Punishment.

We as Christians, Catholic & non-catholic, should pray for the souls on death row AND those who actually execute them. They try to make it a sterile process, with IV's and multiple syringes, but the medical professionals that are participating are all guilty of murder. They are not forgiven because it's their "job"; they have a CHOICE NOT TO PARTICIPATE in the death of another individual!

These people need our prayers of intercession for their souls as they are ultimately responsible for their own salvation and unless they make it right with God, their souls are condemned to hell along with the unrepentant prisoners they are killing.

And then there is the end of life controversy. It really isn't controversial if we follow our faith.

We must do everything possible to ensure that a person lives until their natural death, not starve them to death or deny them medicine or surgery, because the government doesn't feel they are entitled to further care because of age, health or other status. This is what can happen with the National Health care and HHS Mandate and the "death squad" or oversight board. A doctor and the family will no longer have final say regarding the care of their patients, but the rules made by these persons, appointed not elected, with no one to judge their actions, can decide if a person is over a certain age, if they are worth the "investment". As if to say, "well, they're old and will probably die soon anyway, so why not now?"

What is a life worth? What is your mother, father, grandparent worth?

This is a post on writer Wesley J. Smith's website, with commentary on his book, "The Culture of Death-The Assault on Medical Ethics in America" It was written and this post was posted in 2001. Scary, he hit the nail on the head, look at where we are now, just over 10 years later.

Let us make good decisions when choosing elected officials, when voting "yes" or "no" on issues that will go against a persons right to life, and our right to not pay for these atrocities (and that's what they are), that go against our faith and the teachings of our Lord and Church.
Freedom of Religion, not "Freedom of worship" is what was written into our Bill of Rights or to be exact see here.

If we lose this right, what's next? Our freedom of speech? Right to gather? Our right to bear arms? To own property? Our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Just look at history, the Russian Revolution and the formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Good thing we Americans like to stand in line.

Well, enough soap boxing for one day,
Blessings,

The Catholic Lady ©