Natural Lawyer

[Valin]

NY Times:

KAY S. HYMOWITZ

June 21, 2013

 

Most of us live our partisan politics through the media, which generally means cross-firing tweets, posts and cable news shows about the latest scandal as interpreted by a rotating stable of Washington strategists, party faithfuls and pundits. But behind the klieg lights, there has always been a less topical, more abstract debate between liberal and conservative academics and philosophers about the nature of human flourishing and the political and social institutions that best promote it.

 

Robert P. George is one of the most prominent conservative backstagers. The McCormick professor of jurisprudence at Princeton, a former member of the Presidents Council on Bioethics, author of myriad books and articles, he is embraced in social conservative circles and despised in liberal ones for being staunchly opposed to abortion, gay marriage, assisted suicide and embryonic research. His newest book, Conscience and Its Enemies, doesnt add much to what he has already written on these matters. But it does bring together an accessible group of essays that put his highly burnished philosophical and constitutional learning on full display. They should, at the very least, unsettle those whose only experiences of social conservatism are the blunderings of Todd Akin and the theatrics of Rush Limbaugh, and perhaps even lead to some reflection that rises above the media brawl.

 

Though a devoted Roman Catholic, George is not preaching religious dogma in these essays. Following the natural-law tradition, he relies on reason and science (the very tools that liberals, he posits, wrongly believe are always in their corner) to uncover immutable human nature. Certainly his starting premise Each human being possesses a profound, inherent and equal dignity and is an end in himself wont raise atheistic or liberal hackles. Nor will the logic that this premise leads to: infanticide, slavery, segregation and eugenics, all of which deny human dignity, are immoral. But thats about where agreement will end. George goes on to argue that the dignity we attach to the autonomous individual is also inherent in the human embryo. Modern embryology has corrected an earlier view of the fetus as a part of the mother; from the moment of conception, he holds, it is a complete, self-integrating organism, with unique self-directing DNA. The unborn are living individuals of the species Homo sapiens members of the human family. Like all vulnerable beings, they need protection from the powerful who would like to control them. Utilitarian arguments about the benefits that could come from embryonic research or from preventing the birth of an unwanted child are no more valid than the social improvements promised by a eugenicist.

 

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[Valin]

Conscience and Its Enemies: Confronting the Dogmas of Liberal Secularism

Robert P. George

 

Assaults on religious liberty and traditional morality are growing fiercer. Here, at last, is the counterattack.

 

Showcasing the talents that have made him one of Americas most acclaimed and influential thinkers, Robert P. George explodes the myth that the secular elite represents the voice of reason. In fact, George shows, it is on the elite side of the cultural divide where the prevailing views frequently are nothing but articles of faith. Conscience and Its Enemies reveals the bankruptcy of these too often smugly held orthodoxies while presenting powerfully reasoned arguments for classical virtues.

 

In defending what James Madison called the sacred rights of consciencerights for which government shows frightening contemptGeorge grapples with todays most controversial issues: abortion and infanticide, same-sex marriage, genetic manipulation, euthanasia and assisted suicide, religion in politics, judicial activism, and more. His brilliantly argued essays rely not on theological claims or religious authority but on established scientific facts and a philosophical tradition that extends back to Plato and Aristotle.

 

Conscience and Its Enemies elevates our national debates. It sets forth powerful arguments that secular liberals are unaccustomed to hearingand that embattled defenders of traditional morality so often fail to marshal. It also lays out the principles and arguments for rebuilding a moral order.

 

 

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Conscience and Its Enemies: Introduction

Excerpt

Americans are deeply divided on a range of issues not only as to the best means for achieving agreed-upon goals but also as to the goals themselves. These issues centrally involve disputed fundamental values and moral principles. For example: Should human life be protected in all stages and conditions? Or should abortion and euthanasia be permitted and even promoted as "best" (or "least bad") solutions to personal difficulties and social problems? Should we preserve in our law and public policy the historic understanding of marriage as a conjugal union the partnership of husband and wife in a bond that is ordered to procreation and, where the union is blessed by children, naturally fulfilled by their having and rearing offspring together? Or should we abandon the conjugal understanding of marriage in favor of some form of legally recognized sexual-romantic companionship or domestic partnership between two (or more) persons, irrespective of gender, to which the label marriage is then reassigned?

 

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