Solidarity

Bellieni said he believes the debate in medical ethics has moved on from simply “pro-life” versus “pro-choice.” He said the divide is now between those who believe in “solidarity” and those who prioritize “autonomy.” The latter option, he said, is not in fact freedom but merely “a form of loneliness.”

“The Church is not only pro-life but also pro-solidarity—a word much loved by John Paul II and Benedict XVI,” he said. A “woman who chooses abortion has been left alone, therefore her decision is not free, and the person who chooses to withdraw treatment from newborn is often alone too,” Bellieni explained. Those “who believe the highest law is autonomy want to leave people alone—they want people to be left alone to choose in loneliness.”

“So they would say the answer to the sick baby or sick fetus is to give you a sheet of paper with the option on it for you to put an 'x' next to your choice,” he noted. “They call this autonomy but, as I said, this is actually loneliness. We say the true law is love and the true manifestation of that love is solidarity.”

Read the whole thing here.