By Anthony E. Gilles

Saturday, October 15, was the occasion for celebrating the annual Archdiocesan Respect Life Day. St. Jude’s Church was the scene of this year’s event. The major speakers in the morning were Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan, Dr. William A. Lynch, M.D., a prominent Boston gynecologist and obstetrician, and Rosemary A. Meyer, an attorney from Phoenix, Arizona, and national spokeswoman and organizer for the National Committee for a Human Life Amendment.

In his speech the archbishop stressed the need for Christians to speak out on the issue, and not to succumb to the philosophy inherent in the common charge levied against them by abortionists that “one should not force one’s moral viewpoints on another.” In forceful language in which he departed from his prepared text he stated that “society forces its moral viewpoints upon robbers and rapists with whom it disagrees, in enforcing laws against robbery and rape,” as an example of the futility of the abortionists’ reasoning in this area.

The archbishop deflated the anti-life forces’ other major argument, that Christians discriminate against the poor who cannot afford children when they oppose abortion, by citing the list of programs and committees he personally had directed which promote support and sustenance for the poor in many other areas of concern, such as proper housing, clothing, food, and education.

Dr. Lynch’s speech traced the historical development of decayed civilizations which had gradually turned away from respect for life in all its forms, and concluded that America may be the next major civilization to die as a result of internal moral decay. He emphasized that the right-to-life issue is the watershed issue of our age. If we do not decide rightly as a people on this issue, he said, there will be no turning back. It will be a short step from killing children in the womb, to eliminating the elderly and crippled, the deformed, the retarded, or the “useless” and “unmeaningful” people in our society.

He compared the present mentality of the abortionists to those in Nazi Germany who at first saw nothing wrong with Hitler rounding up Jews for the purpose of “scientific experimentation.” What started out sounding neat, clinical, sterile, and “scientific” soon revealed the ultimate horror and evil involved in characterizing some lives as less worthy of existence than others.

Rosemary Meyer moved from the abortion issue to its next logical extension, euthanasia, so called “mercy killing” and “death-with-dignity” statutes already under consideration in many state legislatures across the country. She read from a proposed “living will,” which narrowly missed being put into law in one state legislature, in which a person abdicates to another the right to kill him when the person would become incapacitated or unconscious, or who, for a variety of other reasons would not wish to continue living.

As an attorney, Meyer interpreted the language of such wills so that its full legal significance was clear, and concluded that the language would allow “termination” of a person’s life by another for the flimsiest of reasons in many cases. The particular legislation discussed would not have allowed the maker of the will to revoke it, so that its effects would be felt even if a person changed his or her mind, for example, 20 years later.

The afternoon of the conference was devoted to workshops in which the participants focused on their particular area of interest. In addition to those given by Meyer and Lynch, workshops were sponsored by Georgia Right-to-Life, a local secular pro-life organization, and by the National Committee for a Human Life Amendment, in the person of its national representative from Washington, D.C., Judi Lindsey.

Lindsey worked with the congressional district representative for six congressional districts located in the archdiocese, as well as with the parish representatives within those districts. It will be the responsibility of the latter to organize voters to promote passage of an amendment to the U.S. Constitution which will overturn the 1973 Supreme Court decision which permits abortion on request by any woman during any time from conception to birth nine months later. Lindsey emphasized that anyone wishing to work on this campaign should contact his or her parish representative.

Respect Life Day was concluded with the concelebration of Mass by the archbishop and several local priests. The readings for the Mass cited scriptural references to the sanctity of life and the beauty of God’s human creation.