Editor,
It is said that what is lacking most in the world is justice. This statement suggests that the primary cause of problems among humans is injustice. Justice must be something great if it can bring more peace and harmony to the world. Justice must be a fundamental ingredient to living a truly human life.
So, what is justice? A precise definition of justice is to render to another person his or her due. The example of slavery in the U.S. upholds this definition. Human beings with certain physical attributes were treated as property. They were forcefully removed from their homeland, separated from their families, sold at auctions and forced to work. What made this behavior by one group of people toward another so wrong?
The people forced into slavery were not given their due. Being human - sharing the same human nature as the rest of humanity - Africans were supposed to be treated according to rules of conduct consistent with their dignity as human beings. Instead, they were not given what was owed to them. From the scandal of slavery, it is possible to perceive the source of the debt we owe to one another - the value of our human nature. Our human nature - what makes us human - causes people to be indebted to one another and is the source of the call for justice.
There is something unique and grand about human nature that gives rise to principles and rules of conduct that ensure we are treated in a manner consistent with our dignity. Human nature is the measure by which we judge the actions of people and the laws enacted by governments as just or unjust - whether they recognize a person's rights and render a person his due.
One of the primary rules of conduct arising from our human nature is not to take innocent human life. This rule is the foundation of communal life. Without it, people cannot live together. Human life - existence - is the greatest right a person possesses and the right from which all other rights flow.
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This is exactly why it becomes easy to recognize that legalized abortion is the great injustice of our time. To end the life of an innocent human being, no matter who gives consent, fails to give that person what he deserves. Human nature is the source of the call for justice. From the moment we begin our existence, we manifest our human nature.
Human beings cannot reproduce anything other than themselves, and our existence does not begin at birth. We are human from the first moment of our existence - conception. To end the life of an unborn human being at any stage is to deny him or her the rights arising from his or her human nature. Like the African slaves, the unborn share our human nature, which is why we are indebted to them and why they call for justice.
Benjamin P. Sanchez
UNM alumnus
