Embryos and Eldery: the duty to die

I don't think 'duty to die' should ever be defined as any kind of a legal or moral standard. It is basically an irrelevant phrase that can never have a specific meaning beyond 'buzz word' potential to hype up emotions for propaganda purposes.

I don't think that there is a single easy answer to either the beginning-of-life or end-of-life question.

I note that if pregnancies are not interfered with by man, sometimes stillbirths, the death of either the unborn or the mother or both occur naturally. In nature we see that mothers will abort according to extreme environmental conditions or other factors. Apparently God is not intervening to save every single unborn infant.

Easy answers and single issue politics are neither going to resolve the issue, nor are they going to help the country.

In traditional societies, where they don't have technology that can extend a life by keeping someone in a near-paralyzed state of eye-blinking hell for decades (at devastating cost to the families), people simply die when the time comes, and the families honor the deceased within the context of their beliefs with a fitting ceremony.

Similarly, they don't have technology that can actually detect when the sperm connects with the embryo, how many fertilized embryos are there in the beginning, and who makes it through pregnancy and who doesn't. Nature (or God, if you prefer) either decides that or allows the process to work itself out, even if the natural process claims the life of the either or both the mother and the child.

In terms of Catholicism, the question I am asking here is: how does nature or God already handle this issue? Given our technology, the fact is we already have the ability to intervene, and, being humans, some folks, somewhere, are going to intervene. What are the guidelines?

What would Jesus do? I note that Jesus spent a good deal of time with a professional lady, Mary Magdalene. It is also quite well-known that women in her profession at that time in history regularly used natural spermicides to prevent pregnancies.

So I have to ask: where are all the scriptural stories of Jesus imploring Mary Magdalene to stop using contraception and have a child every single time she accidentally gets pregnant? For that matter, where are all the scriptures in which Jesus advises here to give up her profession?

Unfortunately, we have passed the point where a hands-off approach is possible. We know too much. And so far no stone tablets directly from God have shown up with the guidelines on the proper use of our knowledge.

We have to work it out ourselves.

And single issue politics can easily result in incompetent leaders. The economy exists. Dealing with foreign countries and potential threats exist.

Right -to-life is important, but so are other issues (such as war and economics, which can easily become life-or-death matters if not handled properly).