Saturday, July 26, 2003

The June/July edition of First Things
is online. This article by Mary Ann Glendon is worth a look. There are also interesting ones by Fr. Richard John Neuhaus on Christian unity and sacred architecture, plus one on a blogger whose appeal puzzles me, Andrew Sullivan. The While We're At It section also contains some gems, such as this one:
Men are from Mars, women from Venus. I expect there is a strong measure of truth in that. At least men think they should act as though they are from Mars, which means, among other things, as though they are in control. I have written elsewhere that, as a general rule, women are much better around the sick and debilitated than men, not least because they have usually gone through the ordeal of bearing children. They are more at home with the messiness of life. Admittedly, these are generalizations, but they are brought to mind by a report on physician-assisted suicide in Oregon, the only state in which mercy killing is legal. According to American Medical News, the dominant (84 percent) reason for choosing death is the fear of losing autonomy and the ability to do the things one wants to do. A doctor with a suicide advocacy group says, “The No. 1 reason given to me is: ‘I don’t want to have anyone wipe my rear end.’ That is the most humiliating aspect of terminal illness.” Despite there being many more aged and debilitated women, 71 percent of those choosing suicide in Oregon are men.

There is also a link to one article in the August/September edition, by Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J.










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