Two news stories today with a whiff of the metaphysical about them.
Confirming the conviction of a woman who killed her severely disabled and brain-damaged son, Lord Judge said ".... however disabled Thomas might have been, a disabled life, even a life lived at the extremes of disability, is not one jot less precious than the life of an able-bodied person." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-11742526
Hm? I wonder how many people would whole-heartedly agree with that when obliged to consider it rationally. Of course, we don't all think rationally all of the time. I gather Igor Judge is a catholic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:British_Roman_Catholics)
And good old Iain Duncan Smith is at it as well (http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/nov/11/coalition-backlash-hardship-payments-scrapped).
IDS kindly informs us that it is a "sin" for people to fail to take up work. Well, that may be true in a broad, vague'ish sense, but it may not be the most considered thing the former leader of the Conservatives has said. But then again, he too is a catholic.
IDS is entitled to his opinions and I suppose he is entitled to voice them in his role as a member of Government. But we should be very wary of these opinions when it comes to the next General Election. Obviously the same went for Blair in spades.
However, Lord Judge's catholicism quite possibly disqualifies him morally from passing judgement on matters of life and death. The Vatican's ex-cathedra pronouncements in this area makes it impossible for any observant Roman Catholic to make rational decisions here. And without rational thought, what is left of our society? Might as well hand it over to the mullahs or the bishops.
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