New Book on Consistent Ethic of Life

I’m pleased to note the publication of what looks like a fantastic book on the consistent ethic of life, which appears to be a reappraisal of the “seamless garment” approach to life issues. The book, which will in print tomorrow, is entitled Consistently Opposing Killing: From Abortion to Assisted Suicide, the Death Penalty, and War. It consists of a number of essays by researchers in sociology, political science, psychology and theology. Sr. Edith Bogue, professor of sociology at the College of St. Scholastica and blogger at Monastic Musings, contibuted one of the book’s chapters. She writes about the background of the essay here.

Here is a description of Consistently Opposing Killing from Praeger Publishers:

This work explains an increasingly popular view dubbed the Consistent Life Ethic, which holds that all life deserves reverence, so all social support for actions that destroy life should be withdrawn. The call is for opposition to abortion, capital punishment, euthanasia and other forms of killing to be consistent. Supporters of this view, shared widely in these pages, include figures from the Dalai Lama and Nobel Peace Prize winner Malread Corrifon Maguire to actor Martin Sheen and Village Voice columnist Nat Hentoff. It is at once an ethical, religious and political ideology, explored here in its application to actions from treatment of unborn humans to infants, the disabled, the poverty-stricken, war combatants, and animals. In the work at hand, contributors explain the history of the pro-life movement, its growth and expansion, how these types of seemingly disparate killing are all linked, why a Consistent Life Ethic is needed, and how individuals can take steps to assure this ethic is more widely accepted.