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WHEN WE THINK OF LIFE ISSUES, we too often think of them as specific moments in time: the moment of conception, the moment of birth, the moment of death. Even when we discuss such issues as artificial contraception, abortion and euthanasia ethically, we do the same. What often gets lost in this way of thinking is that life is not a single moment in time, but a long continuum of moments. We are conceived and born, nourished and nurtured over an extensive period. This nurturing is not often thought of as part of the ethical realm. We take it for granted or we cover it with such broad strokes (husbands, love your wives; children, obey your parents) that there is little practical content showing us how to do it well. Yet it is this very nurturing that forms the crux of a consistent ethic of life. We learn to respect life by having been nurtured into this respect.
Ethicians often regard the moral agent as an autonomous, competent individual disconnected from others who reaches moral conclusions as an independent person isolated from other moral agents at the moment of ethical decision-making. The individual reflects on the moral law and then determines what to do. A Catholic needs to know, for example, what the moral law teaches about artificial contraception, abortion, euthanasia and then determines to follow this teaching. If the norm is correct and the agent applies the norm properly, then right acts follow and life is preserved.
I wish to suggest, however, that following these guidelines is not enough to sustain life. To sustain life actively we need to be connected to others; we need to have ongoing relationships. Our need is not just to be tolerated but to be cared for. Likewise, we need to care for others. Sustaining life involves webs of relationship. Otherwise, sustaining life is reducible to being hooked up to a machine with little or no personal interaction. The consistent ethic of life should not revolve around issues but around a consistent nurturing of others. This would include not just the "big issues," such as war, abortion and euthanasia, but the very mundane activities of daily care. We need to ask ourselves if we are life-givers in our day-to-day...