Kevin Tracy is Pro-Life
Being Pro-Life means more than just being anti-abortion. We break down the issue into different facets here.
Ban Abortion
It is an undeniable, scientifically proven fact that each genetically unique human being begins their life at the moment of conception. Conception is the point when unique DNA is created that belongs to neither the mother nor father, but is a genetic marker of a completely unique individual human being.
What is left to deny is the value of human life. Is one man or woman's convenience more valueable than human life? How much money must a man or woman save to justify killing a human being? Who decides how much emotional trauma warrants the death of another human being?
I sincerely wish there was a way to remove a child from an unwilling mother's womb the moment she learns she's pregnant and incubate that child for nine months until they can survive on their own. Sadly, that technology does not exist, yet. When it does, you can bet historians of the future will view abortion as dehumanizing and an abomination. Progressives today love judging our ancestors by our standards, so it is fitting that they'll be judged the same way for dehumanizing an entire class of people.
Of course, some common sense exceptions must be made. While the human being in the womb is valuable, his or her mother must be equally valued. If having the child is going to threaten the woman's life or long-term health, legally requiring any woman to sacrifice her human life for another human life is not okay. Likewise, when the child is suffering from a fatal defect, it makes little sense to prolong the child's suffering without the consent of a hopeful mother suffering with her child by forcing a pregnancy to continue until it becomes a serious health risk for the mother.
Ban the Death Penalty
Every human life has value. No matter how depraved their behavior, to believe any man or woman is beyond redemption is to deny the endless mercy of God.
A rare exception could be made in extreme circumstances where an individual, by means of a radical and violent ideology or the inability to securely detain and hold a person prone to homicidal acts, would pose a continuing threat to human life if they continued to live. However, these must be limited to the most extreme of circumstances. In most cases, especially in the United States, a prisoner can be held in relative isolation where he or she can receive therapy and hopefully be reformed by the efforts of man, the grace of God, or any combination of the two.
Ban Assisted Suicide
Human life should be respected from it's conception to it's natural conclusion. While there is not a moral obligation to unnaturally extend life through medications, it is a moral obligation to respect that life enough to let it end naturally and without human interference. It does not matter whether that interference comes from another person or one's own self.
To seek suicide for relief from pain or the promise of suffering is not unnatural. Our human nature leaves us craving comfort and to avoid that which freightens us. Yet, miracles are worked through the suffering. To end your life unnaturally or to have assistance ending your life unnaturally, denies the world of your wisdom, insight, passion, company, forgiveness, and other incredible blessings you would offer in the time from your suicide until the time you would have passed away naturally.
These blessings and gifts don't stop because someone is suffering. In fact, those gifts and blessings are multiplied many times by that suffering. Friends, family, and even strangers are more likely to see the suffering more frequently, and when they do, they will listen more intently. In this time, they can be moved to forgive you and blessed to be forgiven by you; something which may haunt them for the remainder of their lives. Even total strangers may be moved in ways a suffering person could never predict by their life.
Just like there is no telling what blessings can be bestowed on the world by a new life, there is no limit to the blessings that can come to the world through the suffering of one person. Blessings that are denied by taking one's own life.
This is not to say others should avoid alleviating the suffering of others. In fact, relieving the pain of a suffering person can itself be a blessing enabled by the suffering of the person, provided the person maintains lucid consciousness.
Feeding Tubes and Water
As stated above, all human life should continue until its natural conclusion because all human life has value. If a person learns they have cancer, they are under no moral obligation to fight the cancer with aggressive radiation and chemotherapy, especially when the odds of survival are thin or if all the treatment will do is prolong life by a short amount of time.
However, food and water are not medications. We as human beings have a moral obligation to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, and shelter the needy; which includes the sick. There is not some line of sickness or illness that suddenly makes it okay for us to deny food or water to someone.
If a person has all of their vitals functioning without artificial support, but some disease has removed their ability to eat and drink, it is still morally required of us to give them food and water.
I think a lot of people fail to realize just how miserable and horrible of a way to die dehydration is.
