After reading the work of bioethicist Wesley Smith, I came across a group of people that suffers from a condition called body integrity identity disorder (or BIID). The disorder occurs when a person thinks his limbs are not his own and wants the healthy limbs to be amputated. This clip from Anderson Cooper’s talk show highlights one woman who is able to walk but chooses to use a wheelchair and has asked doctors...
Instead of spewing insults and getting into heated arguments, I'd like to propose a better solution to the debate over same-sex marriage. Let's start from positions bothsides of the debate agree on. Then let's see whose particular view of marriage best explains this agreement.
There appear to be two different views of marriage that drive the same-sex marriage debate. The conjugal view defines marriage as “the lifelong union of man and woman ordered toward their good and the...
My last post declaring that women were not suited to military combat because it is contrary to their nature provoked a surprising number of responses questioning the distinctions between men and women made manifest in the natural law. Many of the responses were based on anecdotes, a method of argumentation that has its merits but also has its limits. That being acknowledged, permit me to indulge in...
It sets me on edge to hear people refer to themselves as "devout" Catholics. Adjectives modify nouns, and some nouns are sturdy enough to stand on their own.
I understand the idea, of course, of identifying oneself as firmly believing and taking the Faith seriously. But it seems to me that devout injects a note of pious self-puffery. (And don't get me started about the term "staunch Catholic." Does one's reputation as a Catholic really benefit from the added connotation of...
Here’s a simple test for people who call themselves "pro-choice" and support legal abortion.
Most of us agree it would be wrong to kill the cute infant pictured here. But I want to know: “Why is it wrong to kill babies like this one?” If pro-choice advocates values consistency, then they must become either pro-life, radical animal rights activists, arbitrary bigots, or supporters of infanticide. Let’s look at some possible reasons one might have for thinking it’s wrong to kill an...
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