Sliding down the slippery slope.

In a recent article from Our Sunday Visitor, I read a thought-provoking quote from Pope Benedict XVI:

Those who insufficiently value human life and, in consequence, support among other things the liberalization of abortion, perhaps do not realize that in this way they are proposing the pursuit of a false peace. The flight from responsibility, which degrades human persons, and even more so the killing of a defenseless and innocent being, will never be able to produce happiness or peace...

Neither is it just to introduce surreptitiously into legislation false rights or freedoms which, on the basis of a reductive and relativistic view of human beings and the clever use of ambiguous expressions aimed at promoting a supposed right to abortion and euthanasia, pose a threat to the fundamental right to life.

These thoughts seemed to crystallize something for me: the notion that the legalization of abortion could well have been the first step along the slippery slope of a culture of death.

• January 22, 1973 - Roe v. Wade and a lesser-known companion case, Doe v. Bolton - In these decisions, the Supreme Court ruled that the right to privacy granted in the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution extended to a woman's right to choose abortion.  Together, Doe and Roe declared abortion to be a constitutional right and overturned most laws against abortion in other U.S. states.
•  July 2, 1976 - Gregg v. Georgia - This case allowed states to resume the use of capital punishment.
• November 8, 1994 - Oregon Death with Dignity Act - Oregon became the first state to legalize physician-assisted suicide.

And along the way, in addition to losing our sensitivity to killing the unborn, the inmate, and the unwell, we've been involved in too many wars or military actions for me to count, and we've had a tremendous increase in instances of people going on killing rampages for no apparent reason. Columbine. Virginia Tech. Sandy Hook. And on and on.

It seems to me that our sensitivity to life - our gentleness, our compassion - has become dulled.

Isn't it time for us to reconsider?

I believe so.