Disputes Surrounding The Term
Like the term "pro-life," the term "culture of life" is not without its critics, who argue that religious conservatives do not have a monopoly on valuing life, or that they devalue it themselves, or that by emphasizing quantity of life they devalue quality of life. Two examples commonly raised are that politicians who say they endorse the culture of life are often supportive of capital punishment and war. Even the tenets of opposition to abortion and euthanasia as part of the culture of life are not undisputed. For example, Leonard Peikoff argues that "Sentencing a woman to sacrifice her life to an embryo is not upholding the 'right-to-life'." Another example is Andrew Sullivan, a self-professed Catholic who opposed the religious right on the issue of euthanasia for Terri Schiavo.
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Famous quotes containing the words surrounding and/or term:
“There are no such oysters, terrapin, or canvas-back ducks as there were in those days; the race is extinct. It is strange how things degenerate.... I passed, the other day, the deserted house of Mrs. Gerry, which I used to think so lordly. It stands alone now amid the surrounding sky-scrapers, and reminds me of Don Quixote going out to fight the windmills. It should always remain to mark the difference between the past and the present.”
—M. E. W. Sherwood (1826–1903)
“... feminism is a political term and it must be recognized as such: it is political in women’s terms. What are these terms? Essentially it means making connections: between personal power and economic power, between domestic oppression and labor exploitation, between plants and chemicals, feelings and theories; it means making connections between our inside worlds and the outside world.”
—Anica Vesel Mander, U.S. author and feminist, and Anne Kent Rush (b. 1945)