Quote:
Originally Posted by Oerets
OK then you do see a difference in having mans intervention in medical procedures. One is OK to healing but not for the creation of another life. We just disagree on the killing portion. I can not say for sure when life first starts or ends. Neither can you also. We just have our own strong feelings and I would not try to change yours.
But if one believes in a afterlife then tell me how an abortion or in vitro really changes an innocents soul? My personal beliefs are more a reuse of the soul somewhere else. Like a rain drop when it leaves the cloud lives a life when falling then is added to the ocean once the fall is over. All to be repeated over and over again.
Barney
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One of my friends is a Catholic priest. While we have never discussed this issue I have learned an important lesson from him: There are no right answers to this kind of stuff.
People will do what people will do. The church cannot stop them. All the church does is provide guidance to help people make the best choices they can.
The same applies to the Instruction paper at hand. As with all documents, it is important to read this document as it was intended. The FOREWORD provides context. Here it is in pertinent part.
Quote:
FOREWORD
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has been approached by various Episcopal Conferences or individual Bishops, by theologians, doctors and scientists, concerning biomedical techniques which make it possible to intervene in the initial phase of the life of a human being and in the very processes of procreation and their conformity with the principles of Catholic morality. The present Instruction, which is the result of wide consultation and in particular of a careful evaluation of the declarations made by Episcopates, does not intend to repeat all the Church's teaching on the dignity of human life as it originates and on procreation, but to offer, in the light of the previous teaching of the Magisterium, some specific replies to the main questions being asked in this regard.
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Emphasis added.
The Foreward shows that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith did not publish the paper out of the blue. What actually happened was a number of people were confused on the topic. Those people asked the Congregation for Instruction. Nor does the paper purport to be perfectly aligned with all previous teachings. What it does do, however, is present the Congregations' best answers to the questions that believers asked.
As for your differences with the church, take it up with them. I doubt that you will make headway with a position that it is OK to kill people just to more quickly recycle souls through happy space. Everyone knows that is the Marines job.