The Linacre Quarterly 81 (4) 2014, 298–301
Editorial Bill of rights for children PETER J. COLOSI1 1 2
AND
WILLIAM V. WILLIAMS2
St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, Wynnewood, PA, USA Editor in Chief, The Linacre Quarterly
In recent years there have been many groups in our society that have been demanding their rights. Women demand the right to choose whether or not to terminate a pregnancy. Homosexuals demand the right to marry same-sex partners. Government officials demand the right to force employers to supply free access to contraceptives and abortifacients to their employees. In the highly politicized environment in which we live, these questions become polarizing and subject to endless litigation. In this process, the voices of the weaker and more dependent members of our society go unheard. This applies especially to children, who have no right to vote, and thus can be ignored in the political conversations dominating many moral issues. But any truly just society will put the rights of these weaker members first and foremost before the rights of those who control the political power. So perhaps it is time for us to speak up for the children, for those who have no voice. Perhaps it is time for children to have their own Bill of Rights. We propose the precepts below as a starting point to draft a Bill of Rights for Children. If we can turn the societal conversation to these, the poorer, weaker, and more dependent members of society, perhaps we can make progress toward having a truly just and loving culture.
AS YOUR CHILD I LOOK UP TO YOU WITH JOY AND RESPECT AND WE ARE EQUAL IN WORTH The only way to truly respect me is to receive me as a gift, as a surprise fruit of your loving each other. When you produce me by substituting loving relations with retrieving sperm and egg and manipulating them in a Petri dish your attitude toward me changes. Yes, I am your loving son or daughter, and therefore look up to you with unimaginable joy and respect, but as a person, I also have equal dignity with you and this gets obscured when I am made as a product via technology that substitutes for loving relations. If doctors can help you with ways to restore the normal functioning of conjugal relations, which then result in the gift of me, then you would be respecting me. But producing me fundamentally changes our relationship.
© Catholic Medical Association 2014
DOI 10.1179/0024363914Z.00000000093
Editorial
299
I DESERVE
TO
BE CONCEIVED
IN AN
ACT OF LOVE
I should be conceived in an act of love, not in a Petri dish under the manipulation of laboratory technicians and doctors. God created my soul out of love, and it is only fitting that my parents procreate my body by giving themselves to each other in an act of self-giving love. I am created in the image and likeness of God who is Love Himself. Anything less than a complete gift of my parents to each other is less than I deserve as the act in which I am conceived. I know that sometimes people want children, and they cannot have them the way God intended, which is a difficult suffering. If medical interventions cannot restore fertility, I know that there are also a number of children whose parents cannot take care of them. If the people who want children could help with the children whose parents cannot take care of them, that would be a lot better than manufacturing children in a laboratory.
I DESERVE
TO
BE TREATED
AS A
PERSON, NOT AS
A
COMMODITY
OR AN
OBJECT
I am a person, created in the image and likeness of God. I should be the fruit of the free and total gift of my father to my mother and my mother to my father. I should not be bought or sold or created via “donors” who get paid for their donations. I should not be stored in a cryogenic container or frozen and thawed. I should be nurtured and loved in the soft, warm womb of my mother who loves me.
I DESERVE TO BE RESPECTED FOR WHO I AM, NOT WHO SOMEONE WANTS ME TO BE I was made who I am by the grace of God, including all my imperfections. I should not be probed or dissected to determine whether I have a gene my parents do not want me to have, to then abort me. I am who I am and I should be respected and loved for that. If I have a genetic defect that will shorten my life or make me less intelligent or coordinated than others, I still should be loved for who I am, not disposed of because I do not measure up to who my parents want me to be. None of us is perfect. I only ask that I be loved for who I am.
I DESERVE
TO
GROW IN MY MOTHER’S WOMB FROM CONCEPTION UNTIL IT IS TIME FOR ME TO BE BORN
When I am in my mother’s womb, I am a little one, which is the root meaning of the Latin word “fetus.” I deserve to be treated as the little person I am, not, as they say today, a depersonalized “fetus” who can be disposed of by preventing me from implanting in my mother’s womb (chemical abortion and some contraceptives), suctioning me out of my mother’s womb (suction abortion), or by cutting me into pieces (dilatation and curettage). I know that God loves me infinitely and has a plan for my life. I deserve the chance to live God’s plan for my life and to become the person He meant me to be
300
The Linacre Quarterly 81 (4) 2014
in all my fullness. God wants me to become a saint, and I deserve the chance to follow His plan for my life.
I DESERVE
TO
HAVE
A
FATHER AND
A
MOTHER WHO LOVE EACH OTHER
I am a complex person with a spirit and a body. I have the capacity to grow both physically and spiritually. For this to happen I will need both feminine and masculine influences from my earliest formative stages. I deserve the tender loving care of a mother who nurtures me and loves me unreservedly and the exhilarating joy of knowing my father who will set boundaries that will teach me self-discipline. I deserve a mother and a father, not two mothers or two fathers. I know sometimes bad things happen and one of my parents may die, but if they are both alive I deserve a father and a mother. I know that is the best situation for me as I grow up and that this will nurture me physically and spiritually.
I DESERVE
TO
BE NURTURED PHYSICALLY
AND
SPIRITUALLY
I deserve an environment that will nurture my physical, psychological, sociological, and spiritual growth. This involves having a father and a mother who love each other and love me and are willing to make sacrifices for each other and for me. As the saying goes, “The best thing parents can do for their children is to love each other!” I know sometimes that marriage can be difficult and parents can disagree, but I know that if my parents are both willing to make sacrifices for each other and for their children there is no problem that cannot be overcome with the grace of God. I deserve to have my parents stay together in a stable marriage all my life with them and until death parts them. I do not want to have to spend some days with my mother and others with my father in visitation because they are separated or divorced. I deserve to have them together loving each other and me as I grow and mature.
I AM BORN INTO
A
FAMILY FIRST,
AND
ALSO
INTO A
COMMUNITY
We are all responsible for each other, if my parents are in a difficult situation, and if you are their relatives, friends, neighbors, or fellow-parishioners, please notice and reach out with real support and practical love. We may need you more than you know.
IF MY LIFE IS THREATENED I DESERVE TO BE RESPECTED HOW I MIGHT SERVE SOCIETY
FOR
WHO I AM, NOT
FOR
God made my soul and my parents procreated my body, and I know that sometimes things do not go right and I may get very sick. I deserve a chance at life, and to be treated with respect for who I am, a child of God made in His image. I should not be disposed of, put to sleep, or euthanized if my life becomes difficult or a burden for my parents. I should be loved and cared for as long as I have life.
Editorial
301
CONCLUSION I am a child of God, and I ask for the chance to be loved and to love as God has loved my parents and me. His love is free, total, faithful, and fruitful. We all need to strive to love freely, to love without conditions or expectations; in this way our love is freely and beautifully reciprocated! We need to love totally, to give away the gift of ourselves completely, as Jesus did on the cross. We need to love faithfully, to be true to one another and to God. And we need to love fruitfully, being open to the gift of life that God may give us. God has given us life, and He wants us to become saints, to experience His love and to love Him in return. I have the right to be loved as God loves because I am made in His image and likeness. I know that sometimes my parents will fall short of this expectation, but I also know that God stands ready to forgive them and that He has created a Church that can help extend His forgiveness to my parents and to me when I fall short as well. Even if I have been treated poorly in some of these ways, I know that if we strive to love as God loves, and to ask for forgiveness and to forgive one another from the heart when we fall short of His love, we can fulfill our destiny to be happy with God forever in heaven.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE Peter J. Colosi, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Moral Theology at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary. He has been teaching at St. Charles since 2009. Previously he taught for nine years for Franciscan University of Steubenville at their program in Gaming, Austria as Assistant Professor of Philosophy. He earned his Bachelor’s Degree in mathematics from Franciscan University, a Master’s Degree in Franciscan Studies from St. Bonaventure University, and his M.Phil. and Ph.D. in Philosophy from the International Academy of Philosophy in the Principality of Liechtenstein. Many of his articles and talks are posted on his website, http://www.peterjcolosi.com/, including a video titled, “Theology of the Body and Dignitas Personae,” in which he explains in detail Catholic teaching on IVF. His email address is: [email protected].
William V. Williams is married to Lorraine with children Ronald, Christina, and Jonathan and is expecting his first grandchild. He is a graduate of MIT and Tufts Medical School, the Vice President of Exploratory Development at Incyte Corporation, an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at University of Pennsylvania, and an ordained Deacon in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. He has served as Editor in Chief of the Linacre Quarterly since 2009.
Editorial Bill of rights for children PETER J. COLOSI1 1 2
AND
WILLIAM V. WILLIAMS2
St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, Wynnewood, PA, USA Editor in Chief, The Linacre Quarterly
In recent years there have been many groups in our society that have been demanding their rights. Women demand the right to choose whether or not to terminate a pregnancy. Homosexuals demand the right to marry same-sex partners. Government officials demand the right to force employers to supply free access to contraceptives and abortifacients to their employees. In the highly politicized environment in which we live, these questions become polarizing and subject to endless litigation. In this process, the voices of the weaker and more dependent members of our society go unheard. This applies especially to children, who have no right to vote, and thus can be ignored in the political conversations dominating many moral issues. But any truly just society will put the rights of these weaker members first and foremost before the rights of those who control the political power. So perhaps it is time for us to speak up for the children, for those who have no voice. Perhaps it is time for children to have their own Bill of Rights. We propose the precepts below as a starting point to draft a Bill of Rights for Children. If we can turn the societal conversation to these, the poorer, weaker, and more dependent members of society, perhaps we can make progress toward having a truly just and loving culture.
AS YOUR CHILD I LOOK UP TO YOU WITH JOY AND RESPECT AND WE ARE EQUAL IN WORTH The only way to truly respect me is to receive me as a gift, as a surprise fruit of your loving each other. When you produce me by substituting loving relations with retrieving sperm and egg and manipulating them in a Petri dish your attitude toward me changes. Yes, I am your loving son or daughter, and therefore look up to you with unimaginable joy and respect, but as a person, I also have equal dignity with you and this gets obscured when I am made as a product via technology that substitutes for loving relations. If doctors can help you with ways to restore the normal functioning of conjugal relations, which then result in the gift of me, then you would be respecting me. But producing me fundamentally changes our relationship.
© Catholic Medical Association 2014
DOI 10.1179/0024363914Z.00000000093
Editorial
299
I DESERVE
TO
BE CONCEIVED
IN AN
ACT OF LOVE
I should be conceived in an act of love, not in a Petri dish under the manipulation of laboratory technicians and doctors. God created my soul out of love, and it is only fitting that my parents procreate my body by giving themselves to each other in an act of self-giving love. I am created in the image and likeness of God who is Love Himself. Anything less than a complete gift of my parents to each other is less than I deserve as the act in which I am conceived. I know that sometimes people want children, and they cannot have them the way God intended, which is a difficult suffering. If medical interventions cannot restore fertility, I know that there are also a number of children whose parents cannot take care of them. If the people who want children could help with the children whose parents cannot take care of them, that would be a lot better than manufacturing children in a laboratory.
I DESERVE
TO
BE TREATED
AS A
PERSON, NOT AS
A
COMMODITY
OR AN
OBJECT
I am a person, created in the image and likeness of God. I should be the fruit of the free and total gift of my father to my mother and my mother to my father. I should not be bought or sold or created via “donors” who get paid for their donations. I should not be stored in a cryogenic container or frozen and thawed. I should be nurtured and loved in the soft, warm womb of my mother who loves me.
I DESERVE TO BE RESPECTED FOR WHO I AM, NOT WHO SOMEONE WANTS ME TO BE I was made who I am by the grace of God, including all my imperfections. I should not be probed or dissected to determine whether I have a gene my parents do not want me to have, to then abort me. I am who I am and I should be respected and loved for that. If I have a genetic defect that will shorten my life or make me less intelligent or coordinated than others, I still should be loved for who I am, not disposed of because I do not measure up to who my parents want me to be. None of us is perfect. I only ask that I be loved for who I am.
I DESERVE
TO
GROW IN MY MOTHER’S WOMB FROM CONCEPTION UNTIL IT IS TIME FOR ME TO BE BORN
When I am in my mother’s womb, I am a little one, which is the root meaning of the Latin word “fetus.” I deserve to be treated as the little person I am, not, as they say today, a depersonalized “fetus” who can be disposed of by preventing me from implanting in my mother’s womb (chemical abortion and some contraceptives), suctioning me out of my mother’s womb (suction abortion), or by cutting me into pieces (dilatation and curettage). I know that God loves me infinitely and has a plan for my life. I deserve the chance to live God’s plan for my life and to become the person He meant me to be
300
The Linacre Quarterly 81 (4) 2014
in all my fullness. God wants me to become a saint, and I deserve the chance to follow His plan for my life.
I DESERVE
TO
HAVE
A
FATHER AND
A
MOTHER WHO LOVE EACH OTHER
I am a complex person with a spirit and a body. I have the capacity to grow both physically and spiritually. For this to happen I will need both feminine and masculine influences from my earliest formative stages. I deserve the tender loving care of a mother who nurtures me and loves me unreservedly and the exhilarating joy of knowing my father who will set boundaries that will teach me self-discipline. I deserve a mother and a father, not two mothers or two fathers. I know sometimes bad things happen and one of my parents may die, but if they are both alive I deserve a father and a mother. I know that is the best situation for me as I grow up and that this will nurture me physically and spiritually.
I DESERVE
TO
BE NURTURED PHYSICALLY
AND
SPIRITUALLY
I deserve an environment that will nurture my physical, psychological, sociological, and spiritual growth. This involves having a father and a mother who love each other and love me and are willing to make sacrifices for each other and for me. As the saying goes, “The best thing parents can do for their children is to love each other!” I know sometimes that marriage can be difficult and parents can disagree, but I know that if my parents are both willing to make sacrifices for each other and for their children there is no problem that cannot be overcome with the grace of God. I deserve to have my parents stay together in a stable marriage all my life with them and until death parts them. I do not want to have to spend some days with my mother and others with my father in visitation because they are separated or divorced. I deserve to have them together loving each other and me as I grow and mature.
I AM BORN INTO
A
FAMILY FIRST,
AND
ALSO
INTO A
COMMUNITY
We are all responsible for each other, if my parents are in a difficult situation, and if you are their relatives, friends, neighbors, or fellow-parishioners, please notice and reach out with real support and practical love. We may need you more than you know.
IF MY LIFE IS THREATENED I DESERVE TO BE RESPECTED HOW I MIGHT SERVE SOCIETY
FOR
WHO I AM, NOT
FOR
God made my soul and my parents procreated my body, and I know that sometimes things do not go right and I may get very sick. I deserve a chance at life, and to be treated with respect for who I am, a child of God made in His image. I should not be disposed of, put to sleep, or euthanized if my life becomes difficult or a burden for my parents. I should be loved and cared for as long as I have life.
Editorial
301
CONCLUSION I am a child of God, and I ask for the chance to be loved and to love as God has loved my parents and me. His love is free, total, faithful, and fruitful. We all need to strive to love freely, to love without conditions or expectations; in this way our love is freely and beautifully reciprocated! We need to love totally, to give away the gift of ourselves completely, as Jesus did on the cross. We need to love faithfully, to be true to one another and to God. And we need to love fruitfully, being open to the gift of life that God may give us. God has given us life, and He wants us to become saints, to experience His love and to love Him in return. I have the right to be loved as God loves because I am made in His image and likeness. I know that sometimes my parents will fall short of this expectation, but I also know that God stands ready to forgive them and that He has created a Church that can help extend His forgiveness to my parents and to me when I fall short as well. Even if I have been treated poorly in some of these ways, I know that if we strive to love as God loves, and to ask for forgiveness and to forgive one another from the heart when we fall short of His love, we can fulfill our destiny to be happy with God forever in heaven.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE Peter J. Colosi, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Moral Theology at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary. He has been teaching at St. Charles since 2009. Previously he taught for nine years for Franciscan University of Steubenville at their program in Gaming, Austria as Assistant Professor of Philosophy. He earned his Bachelor’s Degree in mathematics from Franciscan University, a Master’s Degree in Franciscan Studies from St. Bonaventure University, and his M.Phil. and Ph.D. in Philosophy from the International Academy of Philosophy in the Principality of Liechtenstein. Many of his articles and talks are posted on his website, http://www.peterjcolosi.com/, including a video titled, “Theology of the Body and Dignitas Personae,” in which he explains in detail Catholic teaching on IVF. His email address is: [email protected].
William V. Williams is married to Lorraine with children Ronald, Christina, and Jonathan and is expecting his first grandchild. He is a graduate of MIT and Tufts Medical School, the Vice President of Exploratory Development at Incyte Corporation, an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at University of Pennsylvania, and an ordained Deacon in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. He has served as Editor in Chief of the Linacre Quarterly since 2009.
