Motley Monk v. McElroy | National Catholic Reporter

Motley Monk v. McElroy | National Catholic Reporter by MSW.  MGB: The Motley Monk needs to take some intro level poltical science classes.  He also needs to take a good end of life ethics class from a Jesuit who does not buy into the post Evangelicum Vitae fever about passive euthanisia - which is both morally and legally licit.  Letting someone who is terminal die naturally is no sin.  Active euthanasia is not a practice in the vast majority of the country - especially among Catholics (and is no sin for the unchurched, even if it is moral evil - see Romans on this).  As for abortion, polticis is the art of the possible.  There is no possible legal or judicial fix for abortion under our constitutional system.  A judicial reversal would also tear down much of the remainder of equal protection jurisprudence - particularly federal supremacy.  That would be unacceptable and would leave the fate of the Church in the hands of people in the south who still believe that the Pope is the anti-christ.  They burn churches now - wait until they can legislate them closed!  As for legality, equal proection questions pretty much prevent a first trimester abortion ban, which would necessitate criminal investigations of every miscarriage, as well as possible tort action, once you make an embryo a legal person.  Really.  No bill doing this will pass and no bill avoiding these issues will pass the constitutional smell test.  One must conclude that anyone who waves the bloody sheet of abortion is pandering to the mob and is not serious.  This is not even a prudential choice - the pro-life movement is guilty of defrauding its flock and fundraisers for Republican poltical gain - at least in the US.  In other nations, where rights are granted by the state and not regarded as inalienable, abortion might be regulated. Not here, however.  Give up the dream.