The Defense of Every Life
The Defense of Every Life
- an extract from “Crossing the Threshold of Hope” by St. John Paul II.
Often the question is presented as a woman’s right to free choice regarding the life already existing inside her, that she carries in her womb: the woman should have the right to choose between giving life or taking it away from her unborn child. Anyone can see that the alternative here is only apparent. It is not possible to speak of the right to choose when a clear, moral evil is involved, when what is at stake is the commandment Do not kill!
Might this commandment allow of exception? The answer in and of itself is no, since even the hypothesis of legitimate defense, which never concerns an innocent but always and only an unjust aggressor, must respect the principle that moralists call the principium inculpatae tutelae (the principle of nonculpable defense). In order to be legitimate, that “defense” must be carried out in a a way that causes the least damage, and, if possible, saves the life of the aggressor.
This is not the case with the unborn child. A child conceived in its mother’s womb is never an unjust aggressor; it is a defenseless being that is waiting to be welcomed and helped.
