Florida Catholic | Editorial

Ending cruel and unusual punishment in all its forms

JOE TOWALSKI | EDITOR CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Published: 10.12.07

"Respect for human life and human dignity should be our society's guiding principle."

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Sept. 25 to hear oral arguments about whether lethal injection violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Opponents of the execution method — which uses an anesthetic, a muscle paralyzer and another drug to stop the heart — believe it can cause extreme pain that inmates can't call attention to because of their paralysis.

The justices undoubtedly will hear a lot of legal and medical arguments both for and against it. What they won't hear, however, is a broader debate about the morality of capital punishment and the value of human life.

The focus will be on lethal injection, but is electrocution potentially any less cruel and unusual? The gas chamber? Isn't there something cruel and unusual about a society that chooses to kill inmates when life in prison without the possibility of parole is an option — one that just as effectively punishes criminals and keeps society safe?

Respect for human life and human dignity should be our society's guiding principle. In fact, life is the first of those constitutional guarantees that include liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

But we know that too often respect for human life isn't our guiding principle. And the death penalty is just one example of how we fail — in the words of the late Pope John Paul II — to foster a "culture of life," of how we resort to cruel solutions in difficult situations out of fear, or convenience, or a sense of individualism run amok.

Isn't there something cruel and unusual about terminating an unborn life in the womb?

About helping an ill patient commit suicide? Aren't there better, life-giving options in these situations as well?

The answer our Catholic faith offers is, "Yes." And we shouldn't be afraid to let people know.

Pro-life pregnancy centers and church-affiliated agencies like Catholic Charities, for example, are available to help women make good decisions about parenthood or adoption and to steer them to other needed services during and after their pregnancies.

On the other end of the life spectrum, hospitals and other caregivers can assure critically ill patients they will receive the pain medication and support services they need as they prepare for death.

All this is important, but building a real culture of life — something we focus on with particular attention during Respect Life Month in October — depends on more than one Supreme Court ruling on the death penalty or addressing a few issues like abortion and physician-assisted suicide, important as they are. It also requires ongoing education and a commitment to change laws and public policies that fail to respect human life and human dignity.

Poverty is a scourge that continues to inflict our cities, suburbs and rural communities. When we create more job opportunities, pay a living wage and broaden access to health care and affordable housing for low-income families and others in need, we are also helping to build a culture of life.

As the Supreme Court prepares to decide on the constitutionality of executing prisoners by lethal injection, the rest of us should evaluate whether we are making decisions — and supporting government policies — that are building a culture of life.

If we're not, we are contributing to the same kind of cruel, unusual and anti-life punishments that our church is working so hard against.

This week's guest editorial was written by Joe Towalski, Editor of The Catholic Spirit, newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and appeared in that publication on Oct. 4.

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