Less than two years after the citizens of Washington voted by referendum to uphold the state’s prohibition of physician-assisted suicide, a federal judge invalidated the statute as unconstitutional. In Roe v. Washington , decided on May 3, 1994, Judge Barbara Rothstein cited the Supreme Court’s . . . . Continue Reading »
Richard John Neuhaus In October 1993, Pope John Paul II issued his tenth encyclical, Veritatis Splendor (The Splendor of Truth). The tabloids blazoned that the Pope is clamping down on sexual ethics. And yes, it turns out that he hasn't changed his mind on fornication and adultery, but . . . . Continue Reading »
Life’s Dominion: An Argument About Abortion, Euthanasia, and Individual Freedom by Ronald Dworkin Knopf, 273 pages, $23 “It is a major theme of this book,” Ronald Dworkin writes at the outset of Life’s Dominion , that the abortion debate “is based on a widespread . . . . Continue Reading »
I At the end of its 1992 term, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Planned Parenthood of S.E. Pennsylvania v. Casey . And immediately it became clear that the implications of the decision reached far beyond the resolution of the case.Despite twenty years of general success in electoral . . . . Continue Reading »
It is not hard to understand why when Centesimus Annus was issued in 1991, its economic teachings almost immediately received the most attention. For with respect both to substance and emphasis, Centesimus does represent a considerable development in papal social thought on economic matters. In . . . . Continue Reading »
The March issue of First Things featured an essay by Robert H. Bork, “Natural Law and the Constitution.” In that essay, Judge Bork responded to criticisms of his views on the topic by Hadley Arkes, Russell Hittinger, and William Bentley Ball. Because of the significance of the subject, the . . . . Continue Reading »
Regulating Death: Euthanasia and the Case of the Netherlands by Carlos Gomez, M.D., foreword by Leon R. Kass, M.D. Free Press, 172 pages, $19.95 As Carlos Gomez notes in this important book, the statute law of the Netherlands clearly prohibits euthanasia. Article 293 of the Netherlands Penal Code . . . . Continue Reading »
Innocence and Experience by stuart hampshire harvard university press, 195 pages, $20 Stuart Hampshire begins his new book by pointing out that “there are a thousand or more themes that might be pursued under the heading of moral and political philosophy.” In Innocence and Experience, . . . . Continue Reading »
Jewish-Christian Dialogue: A Jewish Justificationby david novakoxford university press, 194 pages, $24.95 David Novak’s new book is a theologically learned and philosophically nuanced investigation of grounds for Jewish-Christian dialogue. It is written from within the resources of Jewish theology . . . . Continue Reading »
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