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Inside
NCR
One of the difficulties in this age
of technology that develops faster than ethicists are able to ponder its
implications is just finding a way to think about it.
Where to start?
It seemed clear to me in watching the fallout from President
George Bushs pronouncement on embryonic stem-cell experimentation that we
have a long way to go not only in understanding this issue but also in figuring
out how to talk about it in the public realm. For instance, one of Bushs
press officers was nearly giddy in pronouncing to every news talk show that
would have her that the president had figured a path to his decision without
crossing that moral line. She never did define that line, at least
in the pieces I saw, nor did anyone press her on the matter. Truth is, the line
had been crossed. What Bush did not do was cross the moral line again, if you
will, and he managed to straddle the political line nicely, given his earlier
courting of antiabortion forces with words that left the impression that he
regarded embryonic life as inviolable from the earliest moments.
The discussion of recent weeks demonstrated again how difficult it
is to tie decisions over the earliest stages of life to political rules and
regulations. The issues simply do not conform easily to legal formulas, a
reality attested to by the fact that Bush won praise from some unlikely
characters -- religious right figures such as the Rev. Jerry Falwell and TV
preacher/political operative Pat Robertson, who are staunchly antiabortion and
oppose such research.
One certainty is that the debate will continue, which is why we
welcome the thoughts of Fr. Paul Surlis, retired professor of moral theology
and social ethics at St Johns University, New York. Surlis adds to the
discussion that began in NCRs pages in the July 27 issue with the
contribution of Mark Waymack of Loyola University, Chicago, and that will
continue in the months ahead.
For the past two weeks, we have had
the pleasure of hosting Ludovica Eugenio at NCR. She writes and
translates for Adista, an Italian news agency that does considerable -- and
impressive -- coverage of the Vatican under the editorial direction of Giovanni
Avena and Eletta Cucuzza. The news agency, by the way, has rented an office on
the floor where it is located to our own Rome correspondent, John Allen.
Eugenio is becoming acquainted with the NCR operation in
all of its phases -- from the finance department and advertising to marketing
and editorial. In between, she helped us produce the Aug. 24 issue, making
wonderful contributions to our staff meetings, and she interviewed a range of
American Catholics, for a future story, about their views on the main
challenges the church faces in the next few years.
She was here until Aug. 23, when she returned to Rome and her
husband, Giovanni Ferrò, news editor of Jesus magazine, and her
two children, Maddalena, 8, and Lorenzo, 6.
-- Tom Roberts
My e-mail address is troberts@natcath.org
National Catholic Reporter, August 24,
2001
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