Potage tres maigre
1960; Springer Science+Business Media; Volume: 34; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1007/bf01562434
ISSN1573-6709
Tópico(s)Historical and Literary Studies
ResumoFreed, ore of r eligion--o,r of plhilosop~hy, or o,f art, o,r of ~seience fo, r that naatter--e~onfers no crown of righteousness on manslaughter.T~here are also other free4oms; ,and, were a new Carth.ageto.arise in oar wo.r}d, there could be no .hurlingo~f ch~ildre~l into the flames .ass~a:or:ifices to Ba~l'-Ammon, for the right to life is ,a cornerstone of ouqr c.ulture; it is tim first o~f the ".un;alienabte Right, s" set fo.r~h in the United States Declara.ti,on of Independence.The right to life takes p~reeedence here over r eligio~l:s free do.m.Yet we ~are tragically inconsistent.A girl child in t oday',s Califo.rniai.s allov~ed to :die witlmut medical attenti.onbec:ause of her parents' religious b.eliefs.~ The child drank ~a p,oisono~u.sweedkiller, and the parent,s failed to get medical .helpuntil she wa;s dead four ho.urs.They did make the b,~by vomit and then p~t he*r to bed.Then ~hey re:lied for further treatment on the .intensive.affirnmtion,,by themselves and ,a nonmedical pr;a,ctitioner, that ;si.ckne~ss and death do not exist in rea~lity, and that man--,made perfect in His own hn:age .andlike ne.s,s by a perfect God--is not subject to such ills as pois.on,unle~s,s ;his o,wn human error o~f thinking makes him s een~ so,.T~e ~ohjee;tion here is not to the holding of these tenets as religions belie;f--or even ~a.sphilosophical theory --~bnt to their rigid application in a situation which co,st ,a child'~s life by h,arring ~he use .ofantidotes ,against poison.In tile naane o~f freedom o.f religion and freedo,m of thol~ght, a per:s,on may, if ~he wi:ll, believe that the whole srhining cosmos is illusion; bat he will .stillbe rightfully restrained by :an illusory society from trhrowing illusory ,dynamite under the illn:sory wheels of aa imaginary train.S,o, it may well be held, a person should be restrained f'ro,m working pract;icalli h.arm by the denial of ,a~ato.my,physiology, patho~ogy and p,ha:rmacolo,gy--~by the denial, in truth, o,f not only the who.le science of medicine but of the whole body ,of modern :sc~ience.The little girl in California h.ad ~a right to life.Modern medicine, in its turn, h,a,s no.rig~ht to prevent faith in God, or fait~h in a s,aint~ o.r belief in the non-existence of evil, from ~Associated Press dispatch,
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