Preface
When Colorado became the first state to liberalize its abortion laws according to American Law Institute guidelines (in 1967), very few people were much aware of the mountainous moral landslide that had been initiated. The emotional pebble that loosened the foundation of absolute reverence for each human being, regardless of such factors as "meaningful life" or "quality of life," was the rare problem of pregnancy resulting from rape. Because the rape argument for abortion had such tremendous emotional appeal (understandably), the advocates of abortion were able to use it successfully to set in motion a dramatic ethical shift that has ultimately brought us, within less than six years, to a national policy of abortion-on-demand, by United States Supreme Court fiat (January 22, 1973, Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton).
Not until 1971 did I become personally into the realm of concern and discussion regarding abortion. In my capacity as a campus minister at the University of Colorado in Boulder, I came into contact with many young women who requested my counsel about abortion. A deep sense of personal accountability drove me to study the subject and consult with others.
Some of the earliest influences on my thinking have
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turned out to be the most helpful and lasting as well. I owe a deep debt of gratitude to John and Molly Archibald, Mary Rita Urbish, members of the Colorado Right to Life State Committee, and Dr. and Mrs. J.C. Willke. They have steadfastly proclaimed to every troubled woman, high school class, church group, community organization, and legislative assembly who would listen, the basic message of respect for human life, of unconditional love for persons. They have refused to stand comfortably on the sidelines shouting "peace, peace, where there [was] no peace" while watching a nation of peoples tragically plunging itself into nihilism.
I sincerely believe that most people in this country are latently pro-life. But I also sense the distinct possibility of a kind of public apathy setting in, even though it is estimated that about 1.8 million innocent human lives will be killed by abortion in the United States in 1974. Can we afford not to care any more than the citizenry of Germany in the 1930s and 40s could not afford not to care?
Several crucial questions (the answers to which will seriously affect the lives of all of us in the future) cry out for the sober attention of every thinking person: Is the life of every human being of intrinsic, absolute value, or is it of relative value depending upon its quality of life? Must every human life be reverenced equally, or is it permissible in view of new social realities (the demands of society over against the individual) to introduce the distinction between "lives with value" and "lives devoid of value," and the distinction between "lives worth living" and "lives not worth living," and then the distinction between "lives which must be preserved" and "lives which must be terminated" (or, to speak more honestly, "killed")?
It is my hope that this small book on the meaning of personhood, limited as it is in its scope, will make a contribution in sentisizing those who read it to the magnitude of the moral issues involved, if not also motivating them to love, esteem and protect "The least of these my brethren,"
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the unborn children and all others who are being given lower price tags in todays' world.
My special thanks are also due to Mr. John M. Langone, Dr. Edward Y. Postma, Mr. John V. Tunney, and Mr. Meldone E. Levine for their graciousness in permitting me to quote sizeable portions from their published articles.
Clifford E. Bajema
Akron, Ohio, 1974