Biblical Ethics Clears the Murkiness of Post Modern Medical Ethics

by Randy Pope 

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Christian Worldview of History and Culture

In the enlightened post-modern age, it is now necessary to re-evaluate important questions of medical ethics. In 2003 Paul Hill was put to death for the murder of an abortion doctor, and his body guard. In this post-modern age in which all religious views are deemed to be equally valid, it is incumbent upon society to determine whether men like Paul Hill should receive the death penalty for murdering abortion doctors.

Paul Hill stated that he was acting out of religious conviction when he pulled the trigger on John Britton and James Barrett. Hill's theology would be repugnant to most Americans, but the question that must be asked is, do we want to impose our religious beliefs on everyone else? If all religious views are equally valid then no matter how repugnant Paul Hill's opinion may be to most of us there is no standard by which he can be considered as having done anything wrong.

It has been argued that protection could be afforded an unborn baby if his personhood could be proven empirically. It cannot even be empirically proven that the abortionist has personhood. You cannot touch, feel taste, hear, or smell personhood. Therefore using a post-modern epistemology it is impossible to prove his personhood. As a matter of fact, if one does not begin at the starting point of the God of Christianity, who orders the universe, it is impossible to know anything for sure. Furthermore it is impossible to argue any position logically, since logic cannot be experienced through the senses. That makes this whole argument an exercise in futility. 

It seems that the only logical conclusion is to reject post modern philosophy and return to the only rational method of argumentation; one based on Biblical Christianity. Christianity offers the only personal transcendent being, who reveals a standard by which ethics can be ordered. That would force us to conclude that human life is sacred, and the personhood of abortion doctors, and unborn babies would be irrelevant to the argument. Human life would be sacred based on the fact that man is created in the image of God, and therefore we would have to conclude that abortion should be illegal, and that the state should take the same measures against one who murders little babies that they took against the man who murders the abortionist.

Yes, based on a Biblical ethic the state had a God-given responsibility to invoke the death penalty for the murder of the abortion provider and his body guard, and yes, the state has the God-given responsibility to invoke the death penalty for the murder of unborn babies. Based on post-modern thinking, there is no need for the state because there is no basis for knowledge, therefore there is no basis for medical, or any other kind of ethic.

originally posted at The Examiner