Chris' courageous decision

Group member Chris writes about a recent ethical dilemma she had to tackle (posted up on her behalf by Anneli due to technical issues!).

 I recently went to France for the weekend with my son and we came across a large charity event, where you could pay for a ride in a Ferrari. My son is car mad, so, as an early Christmas present,  I said that he could have a go.

It seemed to be a national event as there was also a telethon taking place. The charity's leaflets showed a photo of a young girl, so I presumed it was a children's charity and didn't think any more about it.

It was only later, when I read the leaflet, that I found out it was a charity dedicated to genetic research. My heart sank, as I could imagine that they used human embryos. Shamefully, I was also a little glad I hadn't known beforehand, as my son would have been so upset if I had promised him a ride and had then said he couldn't have it.

I thought some more about how most pro-lifers would refuse treatment for themselves or for their children if the treatment was a result of genetic research on embryos, and then I realised I'd done something far worse by helping fund it!

I decided in the end to contact the charity and ask them to give my money to another children's charity. I explained in my email the reasons behind my request. I just hope they understand. Some people can't see a problem with using aborted embryos for genetic results, as they see it as something good coming out of something bad. I do understand their point of view but it also feels wrong to benefit from something so tragic and so fundamentally wrong.

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Whilst she's posting Chris' words up, Anneli adds, "Thanks for sharing your experience, Chris, and well done for sticking to your principles.  It can't have been easy to write that email.  I think this is a situation more and more of us will be coming across these days with regards to medical research.  I myself came across something similar with regard to a charity that's been supporting my daughter (see previous blog post - unfortunately we've never received a reply from the charity in question).

"St John's Pro Life Group has been having the very discussion Chris alludes to recently with regard to the morality of using vaccines, like the rubella vaccine, which are developed using a cell line derived from an aborted foetus.  We will post more about this dilemma soon!"

Charity and conscience

I have recently had two interesting phone calls with a charity I used to support; one a week or two ago and one just this evening. They were, as you might have guessed having probably received such calls yourselves, wanting me to support them again in one of their new outreach programmes. My answer to both has been, "no, thank you." the first time I said this my reasons for not being able to fund them in any way was met with shock and the young lady hung up on me in total disbelief. Today the lady was more balanced, listened and the conversation ended politely.

So why did I say "no" then? It wasn't for financial reasons or anything like that. No, I refused to support their work in any way because it presents too great a conflict of conscience. For some this would be intriguing; how could supporting a charity, an organisation set up to help others, be a conflict of conscience? Surely charity (as in love for neighbour not just donating money) is a Christian virtue? Whilst I wholeheartedly support charitable bodies in general my problem lies in where my money would go, what my money would fund with this particular one.

So, you may now ask, what is this charity and what is it that I can't allow my money to fund? Well over a year ago (more like fifteen months) I watched an appeal on television for people to sponsor a child in a poor or developing country through Plan UK. They in particular mentioned their work to protect girls from forced marriages, rape and other maltreatment and to provide them with an education which they might otherwise be denied. Moved by the conditions children in so many countries were living in I quickly signed up without properly looking into who I was supporting. After a couple of months I discovered that as a part of their educational work with children, and in particular girls, they teach them about contraception, provide contraception and offer access to "safe" abortions. Although the girl I was sponsoring was under ten and unlikely to come across this herself at that age I truthfully could not bear the thought of money I had donated being used to end the life of an unborn child or provide education on contraception. I couldn't stomach supporting someone who openly encouraged this even in areas where the population have moral, religious and cultural beliefs that tell them this is wrong. So I promptly ended the direct debit. Plan UK made no secret about offering these things to the children they work with, in fact it's made clear on their website, I evidently did not check them thoroughly enough (or at all) before disclosing my bank details.

This raises a big question, doesn't it? Should we support an organisation who, for the most part, do wonderful things but, at the same time, encourage abortion and the use of contraception. One thing many would ask is, "doesn't the good they do outweigh the bad?" The very clear answer to this is a firm and definite no. As the Catechism clearly states in paragraph 1755 "A morally good act requires the goodness of the object, of the end, and of the circumstances together. An evil end corrupts the action, even if the object is good in itself." (Also see paragraphs 1756, 1758, 1759 and 1789.) No matter how much good they may do the act of killing one innocent child distorts and destroys all of this as it is a total violation of God's gift of life an His love for us. We cannot say we love our neighbour in one way yet allow the destruction of our unborn neighbour at the same time. This evil action literally corrupts the whole act.

What is sad is that it is very difficult to support an effort such as sponsoring a child without running into this, without discovering what our money might have paid for. It is the kind of thing that we need to be sure of before supporting anyone (I have learned my lesson from this) and ensure we keep on top of a particular charity's change in policy. I'm not saying don't donate to charities, far from it, what I am saying is that we have a responsibility as Christians to ensure that our money, all of our money, goes to help our neighbour, is used to nourish and support them, to help them grow but never to attack life, whether through contraception or abortion. We need to be able to place our hand in our heart and say our conscience is clear. Otherwise we have been party to it.

Although this happened before I was even baptised this still bothers me today, not least because Plan UK keep ringing me. So I have decided to spiritually adopt a child in danger of abortion as a type of penance, as a way of trying to help someone else, a way to love my neighbour. Perhaps if you too have discovered this about an organisation you used to support you would like to join me. All it takes is saying one prayer (maybe the Hail Holy Queen or Memorare) for this intention each day and it will make a huge difference.