National Sanctity of Human Life Day, 2003
By the President of the
United States of America
A Proclamation
Obtained from http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/01/20030114-13.html
Our nation was built on a promise of life and liberty for all citizens. Guided by a deep respect for human dignity, our Founding Fathers worked to secure these rights for future generations, and today we continue to seek to fulfill their promise in our laws and our society. On National Sanctity of Human Life Day, we reaffirm the value of human life and renew our dedication to ensuring that every American has access to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
As we seek to improve quality of life, overcome illness, and promote vital medical research, my Administration will continue to honor our country's founding ideals of equal dignity and equal rights for every American. Every child is a priority and a blessing, and I believe that all should be welcomed in life and protected by law. My Administration has championed compassionate alternatives to abortion, such as helping women in crisis through maternity group homes, encouraging adoption, promoting abstinence education, and passing laws requiring parental notification and waiting periods for minors.
The Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, which I signed into law in August 2002, is an important contribution to our efforts to care for human life. This important legislation helps protect the most vulnerable members of our society by ensuring that every infant born alive, including one who survives abortion, is considered a person and receives protection under Federal law. It helps achieve the promises of the Declaration of Independence for all, including those without the voice and power to defend their own rights.
Through ethical policies and the compassion of Americans, we will continue to build a culture that respects life. Faith-based and community organizations and individual citizens play a critical role in strengthening our neighborhoods and bringing care and comfort to those in need. By helping fellow citizens, these groups recognize the dignity of every human being and the possibilities of every life; and their important efforts are helping to build a more just and generous Nation. By working together to protect the weak, the imperfect, and the unwanted, we affirm a culture of hope and help ensure a brighter future for all.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim Sunday, January 19, 2003, as National Sanctity of Human Life Day. As we reflect upon the sanctity of human life, I call upon all Americans to recognize this day with appropriate ceremonies in our homes and places of worship, to rededicate ourselves to compassionate service, and to reaffirm our commitment to respecting the life and dignity of every human being.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fourteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-seventh.
GEORGE W. BUSH
Bush´s Sanctity-of-Life Proclamation
Special Day Announced
WASHINGTON, D.C., JAN. 20, 2002 (Zenit.org).-
Here is the text of a proclamation by President George W. Bush for National
Sanctity of Human Life Day 2002. The event was marked today.
National
Sanctity of Human Life Day, 2002
By the
President of the United States of America a Proclamation
This Nation was founded upon the belief that every human being is endowed by our
Creator with certain "unalienable rights." Chief among them is the right to life
itself. The Signers of the Declaration of Independence pledged their own lives,
fortunes, and honor to guarantee inalienable rights for all of the new country's
citizens. These visionaries recognized that an essential human dignity attached
to all persons by virtue of their very existence and not just to the strong, the
independent, or the healthy. That value should apply to every American,
including the elderly and the unprotected, the weak and the infirm, and even to
the unwanted.
Thomas Jefferson wrote that, "[t]he care of human life and happiness and not
their destruction is the first and only legitimate object of good government."
President Jefferson was right. Life is an inalienable right, understood as given
to each of us by our Creator.
President Jefferson's timeless principle obligates us to pursue a civil society
that will democratically embrace its essential moral duties, including defending
the elderly, strengthening the weak, protecting the defenseless, feeding the
hungry, and caring for children -- born and unborn. Mindful of these and other
obligations, we should join together in pursuit of a more compassionate society,
rejecting the notion that some lives are less worthy of protection than others,
whether because of age or illness, social circumstance or economic condition.
Consistent with the core principles about which Thomas Jefferson wrote, and to
which the Founders subscribed, we should peacefully commit ourselves to seeking
a society that values life -- from its very beginnings to its natural end.
Unborn children should be welcomed in life and protected in law.
On September 11, we saw clearly that evil exists in this world, and that it does
not value life. The terrible events of that fateful day have given us, as a
Nation, a greater understanding about the value and wonder of life. Every
innocent life taken that day was the most important person on earth to somebody;
and every death extinguished a world. Now we are engaged in a fight against evil
and tyranny to preserve and protect life. In so doing, we are standing again for
those core principles upon which our Nation was founded.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by
virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the
United States, do hereby proclaim Sunday, January 20, 2002, as National Sanctity
of Human Life Day. I call upon all Americans to reflect upon the sanctity of
human life. Let us recognize the day with appropriate ceremonies in our homes
and places of worship, rededicate ourselves to compassionate service on behalf
of the weak and defenseless, and reaffirm our commitment to respect the life and
dignity of every human being.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this eighteenth day of January,
in the year of our Lord two thousand two, and of the Independence of the United
States of America the two hundred and twenty-sixth.
GEORGE W. BUSH
[Text released by White House]
ZE02012021
Obtained from www.zenit.org
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For Life Pdf file for reproduction
Instruction on Bioethics, Respect for Human Life- From the www.vatican.va
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